The precedent-setting push to hold parents responsible for school shootings

For a nation struggling to deal with an epidemic of mass shootings in a culture that seems dedicated to deprioritizing gun control, it was a hugely experimental case.

But now, six months after the convictions in Michigan of first Jennifer and then James Crumbley, the parents of the Oxford High School shooter, it’s clear that a precedent has been set for holding the parents of school shooters criminally responsible in extraordinary cases where negligence factors into gun violence.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation on Thursday arrested Colin Gray, the father of the alleged Apalachee High School shooter, on charges including two counts of second-degree murder. The move marks a continuation and arguable expansion of the movement begun in the Michigan case: an effort by law enforcement to hold parents responsible for gifting their child with a gun, especially those kids who have been experiencing violent urges and making online threats.

The September 4 shooting resulted in the deaths of two students and two teachers. At least nine other people were injured. Prior to the shooting, Gray’s son had reportedly struggled with his mental health and had been “begging for help” for months, according to a statement his aunt gave the Washington Post. 

Gray’s son had been the subject of a 2023 tip to the FBI over shooting threats he allegedly made in a Discord server, using an account name that appeared to reference the Sandy Hook school shooter. Police spoke to both father and son during the investigation. At the time, Gray had claimed his son, then 13, had no “unfettered” access to weapons; he seemed skeptical that his son was behind the threats despite police tracing the account that made them to an email his son allegedly owned. The allegation was eventually found to be unsubstantiated.

Despite this incident and despite having “knowledge he was a threat to himself and others,” just seven months after the FBI tip and investigation, Gray allegedly gave his son an AR-15-style rifle, according to Gray’s arrest warrant. Sources close to the investigation told CNN Gray had admitted to giving the gift as a holiday present. In Georgia, it’s illegal for a minor to buy a rifle but not illegal for them to possess one; had Gray not given his son a weapon, it likely would have impeded his son’s efforts to get one on his own.

Gray’s son was charged with four counts of felony murder and could receive additional charges. Gray faces charges of second-degree murder as well as involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children. Father and son were arraigned in court together on Friday morning in Barrow County. Neither asked for bond.

If sentenced on the most serious charge of second-degree murder, Gray could be sentenced to between 10 and 30 years in prison; if convicted on every count, he could face up to 180 years in prison. His son’s charges carry a mandatory sentence of life in prison, possibly without parole.

In both the Georgia and the Michigan cases, the alleged shooter’s parents ignored alarming warning signs and arguably enabled their son’s violence

In separate trials held earlier this year, Jennifer and James Crumbley were each found guilty of four counts of involuntary manslaughter, after their son opened fire in the hallways of his school, Oxford High School, in Michigan on November 30, 2021 —  just hours after school administrators had summoned the Crumbleys to campus in order to alert them that their son seemed to be having violent fantasies. 

The similarities between the Grays and the Crumbleys are eerie. In both cases, the parents allegedly ignored their son’s deteriorating mental health as well as signs he was experiencing violent fantasies. In both cases, the parents gifted their son a gun despite clear warning signs, and despite it being illegal in both states for minors to purchase the kinds of weapons they received. In both cases, authorities found evidence after the shooting that the shooter had kept writings expressing violent ideation. 

Prosecutors had argued in the Michigan case that the Crumbleys, both gun enthusiasts, enabled their son to commit the shooting in three key ways: by ignoring what should have been warning signs regarding his mental health, by purchasing a firearm they intended for him to own even though possession of such a firearm by a minor is illegal in Michigan, and by failing to secure the gun away from him — even after school officials alerted them to the problem just hours before the shooting took place.

For months prior, the Crumbleys’ son repeatedly asked his parents for help handling his mental health and showed signs of depression and mental illness. In texts sent to them, for example, he exhibited growing paranoia and complained multiple times of seeing ghosts or demons in their home when he was alone. The Crumbleys appeared to ignore or dismiss his concerns.

Four days before the shooting, James Crumbley took his son with him to buy a gun that prosecutors argued they intended for their son’s personal use, despite his being under 18, the legal age for gun ownership in Michigan. 

Two days before the shooting, after their son was disciplined at school for looking up bullets, his mother joked that he needed to “learn not.to.get caught.” The morning of the shooting, a teacher found disturbing violent gun fantasies the son had drawn, and the school summoned the parents for a conference to discuss their son’s concerning behavior.

Despite these indicators, neither James nor Jennifer alerted the school to the fact they had just purchased a gun similar to the one shown in the drawing. They left him at the school and went back to their jobs, without returning home to make sure the gun was still secured. School administrators neglected to search the son’s backpack, where the gun was still hidden. 

A few hours after this meeting, the Crumbleys received reports of the school shooting and immediately began frantically messaging him. “He must be the shooter,” Crumbley texted her boss. 

By then, however, it was too late to intervene. 

In April, the Crumbleys were each sentenced to 10–15 years for their roles in the crime. Their son, who was 15 years old at the time of the shooting, was sentenced to life in prison without parole. 

At the time, the facts that led to the Crumbleys’ precedent-setting convictions seemed likely to limit that precedent’s reach. The case was so extraordinary that the possibility of it being repeated seemed rare. Another case, though, has emerged with the same hallmarks of parental negligence, arguable neglect, and a child whose alleged violent ideation went unchecked. There were additional stressors on Colin Gray’s son: The Grays were in contact with local child protection services and had undergone a messy divorce prior to the shooting; his mother has an extensive criminal record and, according to relatives, his father may have been emotionally and verbally abusive.

The cases highlight the complex factors that lead to teen violence and the frustrating weaknesses of the systems that are meant to prevent it within a permissive gun culture. In the Crumbleys’ case, the school district failed to prevent the shooting, in part because they failed to search the shooter’s backpack to locate the gun he had with him the day of the shooting, but in large part due to his parents’ unconcern despite the school’s repeated attempts to alert them to their son’s escalating behavior. In the Grays’ case, law enforcement was unable to do anything about the online threats other than talking to Gray and his son — a conversation that apparently left no serious impression on the father, given his subsequent gun gift.

In sentencing the Crumbleys in April, Michigan Judge Cheryl Matthews stated she hoped the lengthy sentences they were given would prove a deterrent to future school shootings. While it’s impossible to know how many families heeded this warning and stepped in before their child escalated to violence, we now have yet one more example of a worst-case scenario: A father who didn’t just dismiss but allegedly enabled his son’s gun fixation. 

The decision to hold Gray responsible, not just for involuntary manslaughter but for second-degree murder, arguably reflects Georgia prosecutors’ belief that this shooting could have been prevented had the alleged shooter’s parents kept the weapon out of his hands. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 384 mass shootings in the US so far in 2024, a total that seems unthinkable — but a number that highlights the urgent need for parents to pay attention to warning signs before they escalate. Hopefully, in the wake of Gray’s arrest, even more parents will take notice.