Michigan judge rules Oxford schools, staff cannot be sued for 2021 mass shooting

A Michigan judge ruled on Friday that the school district and staff from Oxford High School cannot be sued for the November 2021 mass shooting that left four students dead and seven others injured.

Circuit Court Judge Mary Ellen Brennan found that Oxford Community Schools and its staff are protected by governmental immunity. The families of two of the victims, as well as several other parents and students, had filed the civil lawsuit against the school district and staff members, as well as the shooter and his parents.

The shooter, 16-year-old Ethan Crumbley, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and terrorism charges last October. His parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, have been charged with involuntary manslaughter for providing their son with access to a gun and failing to intervene when he showed signs of mental health issues. They have both pleaded not guilty.

The lawsuit accused Oxford Community Schools and its staff of “gross negligence and vicarious liability” over their actions leading up to the shooting. 

A teacher saw Ethan Crumbley looking at ammunition on his phone the day before the shooting, leading the school to call and leave a voicemail for his mother, according to The Associated Press.

The day of the shooting, his parents were called into the school to discuss concerning drawings Crumbley had made and were told to take him to counseling within 48 hours.

However, Brennan noted in Friday’s decision that “Ethan Crumbley’s act of firing the gun, rather than the alleged conduct of the individual Oxford Defendants, was ‘the one most immediate, efficient, and direct cause of the injury or damage.’”

She added that even assuming that they were “grossly negligent” in their response, “no reasonable trier of fact could concluded that the conduct of any of the individual Oxford Defendants was ‘the one most immediate, efficient, and direct cause of the injury or damage.’”

In the wake of the opinion, a group of Oxford parents and students known as “Change 4 Oxford” called for legal limits to government immunity.

“As long as governmental immunity completely shields schools like Oxford, it will only serve to deny families transparency, justice, and accountability,” Change 4 Oxford parents Lori Bourgeau and Andrea Jones said in a statement. “Without real change, our schools’ incentive to truly improve safety policies will remain limited due to their ability to hide behind immunity when future tragedies occur.”