So a few things…
School officials testified that the parents chose not to take their son home despite the school telling them to get him immediate help, and offering them facilities that provided same-day mental health care services.
Not to give the parents a pass, but the last thing I’d do is trust a school to be involved in my kids mental health.
Ethan Crumbley’s parents purchased him the gun he used in the shooting as a gift and had taken him to the shooting range before the attack. Prosecutors argued that the parents did not secure the gun or limit their son’s access to it.
If I grew up in the last 20 years my father would be doing LIFE. I had my own firearms and ammo in my room, in my gun cabinet since the 4th grade.
Jennifer Crumbley testified that it was her husband’s responsibility to ensure the gun was stored securely and that their son could not access it. One of the arguments made by her lawyer was that she did not know guns well.
So what happened to feminism and equality. Suddenly there are things that are a man’s job.
Smith also argued that in Oxford, where the shooting happened, it is common for students to go hunting with guns. A school official testified that many seniors take prom portraits with their guns and that they often need to be reminded not to come to school with their guns during hunting season.
In 1983 when the vice principal learned I had a HK93 in the school parking lot, because the range was close to the school and I sometimes went shooting right after, he wanted to see it because he was thinking about buying one. If I went to school in the last 20 years I’d probably be doing LIFE. Of course even with a HK93 in the parking lot, it never occurred to me to settle my various social challenges by shooting up the school.
Not sure how I feel about this one. On one hand if your pitbull runs out of the door and attacks somebody, it is YOUR fault. But I know some parents who did everything they could but their kid was still a full on shithead. Does sort of look like they were prosecuted for being horrible people and if all it takes is ignoring your kids and adultery we should lock up half the country.
Part of this is parents of dead kids trying to find somebody or something to blame, because their entire situation is so extremely unjust and unfair that saying “but these things happen” just isn’t gonna cut it. Just ask the parents of the children killed by Adam Lanza, the fact that he executed his mother first brings them zero comfort or any sense of justice. When your kid is murdered at school, a place you should feel safe to send them, NOTHING will ever make it right. The jury might feel like they made things better somehow, but honestly the parents will take little comfort from anything.
But another part of this is recognizing that your kid might be very ****ed up and by extension you might be very ****ed up is the kind of personal observation and reflection that few people are willing to engage in. When it’s your family, sometimes you just can’t see it because your family is your sense of normal. Again the Adam Lanza case is a perfect example, all the warning signs were there and while his mom was taking steps to finally address it…it came too late for her and for all the parents of his victims. But how many parents will look at their kids and say “They have serious problems, they need to be taken out of our home and put in a supervised facility.”
This is also a consequence of normalizing extreme mental illness both in the home and at school. When children decide they identify as animals or non terrestrial beings and have those ideas validated and supported by the school, well then nobody is mentally ill. And here are the consequences of deciding people with serious mental challenges need to be accepted or mainstreamed of just possibly medicated.
I worked for the school board of Broward County in the early 90s and I remember telling a LOT of people that various policies were gonna come back and bite them on the ass. But I had no idea just how bad it would get. The Parkland shooting happened not very far from my home in Florida. One of my best friends was supposed to be there dropping off papers that afternoon, he decided to get up early and do it before school so he wouldn’t lose most of his lunch hour. He and his wife attended a LOT of funerals for family and friends after that.