The recent school shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan has once again shown how terrifyingly normal this madness has become. A troubled kid with access to a gun goes on a rampage. Four students are killed. Eight others, including a teacher, are wounded. Like almost every school in America, there had been “active shooter” drills. School administrators and teachers are trained how to look for warnings signs. Students are told if they see or hear something troubling, tell someone. Fifteen year old Ethan Crumbley has been charged as an adult for killing the four students and wounding the others. His parents are charged with involuntary manslaughter for failing to prevent their son from bringing the gun to school. This awful day didn’t have to happen if a school counselor had done their job.
The day before the shooting, a teacher saw Ethan viewing images of bullets on his cellphone during class. A counselor and another staff member met with him. He told them shooting sports were a family hobby. The school tried to contact Mrs. Crumbley, but didn’t hear back right away. The next day a teacher observed a drawing by Ethan that raised another red flag. The drawing showed a gun, a person being shot, a laughing emoji and the words, “Blood everywhere” and “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.” The teacher notified the school counselor and the dean of students. Ethan was taken out of class. He said the drawing was part of video game he was designing. His parents were called into school. Somehow the counselor concluded Ethan didn’t intended to hurt anyone, but told the parents they had to get him into counseling within forty eight hours. They refused and refused to take him home. They left and went to work. In a letter from the superintendent after the shooting he said, “At no time did counselors believe the student might harm others based on his behavior, responses and demeanor, which appeared calm.” Because Ethan had no prior disciplinary action and they didn’t want to send him home to an empty house, they sent him back to class.
The counselor never asked the parents if Ethan had access to a gun. If he did, did they know where it was? The parents were never told to check Ethan’s backpack or locker. The school official didn’t do it on their own. If the parents had told the truth, they would have told the counselor that they had just bought a gun for the son a few days earlier. The principal, who is ultimately responsible for the safety of building, was never told about any of this. This situation was screaming for the highest level of attention and the immediate notification of the police when the parents wouldn’t cooperate.
The superintendent says he district will now have an outside party investigate the incident. It’s too late. Four kids are dead. The warning signs observed by teachers were flashing red lights. What would you do if someone was acting like this in your workplace? Wouldn’t you tell the boss right away? Wouldn’t you say we have call the police if the person was not cooperative? This was a building full of kids. Too many times schools have become the killing fields of our children. How many times have we heard in the aftermath of these incidents, “If we had only seen the warning signs”, “If someone had just spoken up.” In this case, school officials saw the warning signs, and someone did speak up. A threat was hiding in plain sight and responsible people were blind.
Certainly, there were signs but were they significant or serious enough to warrant more direct intervention only further investigation will answer. This is not a new problem – just one that has become more prevalent as the availability of weapons to young people has become more prevalent in society and where there are breakdowns within the home that may precipitate the occurrence of a violent event. More than sixty years ago I had a graphic arts teacher in junior high school – a wonderful teacher and human being, shot and killed on the sidewalk after school one afternoon – a tragic loss of a gifted teacher, actively involved in his community and a tragedy for the fifteen-year old who committed the murder and a potentially left unfullfilled life. They had crossed paths earlier in the school day over a disciplinary matter but were there enough signs to predict what would happen later in the day is the same kind of question, we still ask ourselves today. Parents need to be more forthcoming about the help their children need and schools need much better resources in providing the help. While there are signs of trouble – what is really unknown at the time is the depth of the anguish any young person is feeling at the time – their true self worth and how quickly an intervention must occur.
Tom,
I finally found your e-mail comments on the school shooting story. Thanks for taking the time.