While the historic trials of the parents of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley resulted in guilty verdicts, the parents of the four students killed at Oxford High School in 2021 said Monday their quest for accountability is far from over.
They are turning their attention back to the school district and school administrators, some of whom were called as witnesses in the trials, to demand lasting efforts from state leaders, including changes to governmental immunity laws that protect schools from being sued and requiring independent reviews after any mass shooting.
They also want a continued investigation into the response at Oxford, with subpoena power to force people to cooperate, saying a third-party report released last year was “scathing” but also had shortcomings, in part, because school employees weren’t compelled to participate.
“We’re not fighting for us anymore,” said Steve St. Juliana, whose 14-year-old daughter, Hana, was among those killed in the worst school shooting in Michigan’s history.
“Our children are dead. They’re not coming back,” he added. “We’re fighting for everybody else and to try to wake people up to realize that what happened here in Oxford can and will happen again.”
The parents called for wider changes after the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office said, following James Crumbley’s conviction of involuntary manslaughter last week in the students’ deaths, that it wouldn’t bring additional criminal charges against school officials.
“If I were going to charge anybody criminally in the school, I would have done so, and I would have stated it,” County Prosecutor Karen McDonald told NBC News on Friday.
McDonald’s office worked closely with victims’ families in her pursuit to secure charges in the unusual cases against James Crumbley and his wife, Jennifer, who was convicted last month on the same involuntary manslaughter charges. During the trials, prosecutors evoked the names of the victims — Hana St. Juliana; Justin Shilling, 17; Madisyn…
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