Judge to determine if immunity applies
Detroit — Attorneys for Oxford schools want a federal judge to dismiss 10 lawsuits alleging the district failed to protect students and downplayed the threat Ethan Crumbley posed to the school.
For U.S. District Court Judge Mark Goldsmith to deny the district’s motion and move forward with the case, the attorneys for Oxford students and their families have to prove the district took actions that created or increased the danger Ethan posed to students and teachers. This is what’s needed in order to overcome the protections of governmental immunity.
Ultimately, the question Goldsmith will have to answer is: Was Ethan more of a threat to Oxford students and teachers after a school counselor pulled him out of class for a meeting with his parents, where officials asked the Crumbleys to remove Ethan from school and seek mental health counseling for him?
Attorneys for both sides argued their case in federal court Tuesday. Goldsmith did not issue a decision immediately after arguments; he said an opinion would come later.
Ken Chapie, one of the district’s attorneys, said the threat Ethan Crumbley posed to students was the same before and after a meeting he had with school officials the morning of the shooting. Ethan had been planning the shooting for months, had written about it in journals and brought the gun and bullets to school in his backpack that day, Chapie said.
“The threat existed well before any one from Oxford schools intervened,” Chapie said.
Parents of Oxford victims say protecting district with government immunity is ‘unfair’
Goldsmith questioned if the school’s conversations with Ethan could have increased the odds of the shooting occurring that day. But Chapie said the meeting didn’t put anyone in a worse position than if it had not happened at all.
attorney Kevin Carlson, who made oral arguments on behalf of all the plaintiffs, said the meeting acted as a trigger for Ethan, who had brought bullets to school on other days as well, but never used them. Something different happened the day of the shooting, Carlson said: The meeting with the school.
Carlson said when the district told Ethan his life was about to change — basically saying if your parents don’t get you treatment, we will — there was a danger that it would act as an accelerant instead of calming him.
Carlson said it was shocking for the district to send Ethan back to class and return his backpack to him without checking it, especially given the concerning statements found on a piece of paper in front of him. Ethan had written “the thoughts won’t stop, help me,” a drawing of a bullet and the phrase: “blood everywhere.” There was a sketch of a person shot twice and bleeding, a laughing emoji and the final lines: “my life is useless” and “the world is dead.”
“This was unique knowledge no one else had,” Carlson said.
School officials tracked his whereabouts in the school because they were worried about what he might do, Carlson said, but they didn’t warn teachers or students about their concerns.
Similar lawsuits have already been dismissed in state court.
Oakland County Circuit Judge Mary Ellen Brennan in early March dismissed all Oxford governmental employees and entities from the civil lawsuits related to the shooting. Brennan determined the district and its employees had governmental immunity and could not be sued. Even if they were negligent, Brennan said legal precedent dictated that “no reasonable trier of fact could conclude that any of the conduct of any of the individual Oxford Defendants was ‘the one most immediate, efficient, and direct cause of the injury or damage’ to the Plaintiffs.”
Crumbley pleaded guilty to 24 criminal charges in October, including terrorism causing death and first-degree murder. His sentencing is tentatively set for June 2.
His parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley, are charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter each. Their case is pending after the Michigan Court of Appeals heard oral arguments about whether the charges should have been bound over to circuit court.
kberg@detroitnews.com
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