Both juries got it right! Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley’s mother, Jennifer, was convicted several weeks ago of involuntary manslaughter for her role in doing nothing to prevent her son’s actions when he massacred four of his fellow students at Oxford High. Last week, his father, James Crumbley, was also found guilty of the same offense.
I’ve always spoken out about parental responsibility. I grew up among the poorest of the poor, but those parents did not tolerate their children’s obnoxious or willful behavior.
Over the past 40-50 years, people have been trying to convince the world that parenting has nothing to do with a child’s wayward behavior. Some folks would have you believe that “it just happens!” Naw!
There will always be a very rare exception but, for the most part, children’s behavior is the direct result of the way they were (or weren’t) raised. And when they haven’t been parented, you get the problem kid. When children are not parented properly, you’ll get a 13-year-old out running the street late at night shooting guns and when he ends up dead, people are outraged! When children are parented, the parent having to come to school to address the child’s misbehavior is the kid’s worst nightmare.
Thankfully, 24 citizens in Michigan had the common sense to see that the parents, who ignored all the warning signs that their son displayed, were just as culpable as he was. Once Ethan’s parents were called to the school, they should’ve taken the initiative to check their child’s backpack, knowing that they had purchased him a gun.
If there’s one universal truth, it’s that a parent never gets a “right to privacy.” At every opportunity, children will do their best to rummage through a parent’s stuff to see what they can find. So on the flip side, children have no right to privacy while living under their parent’s roof. One of the first responsibilities of parenting is to know what your children are into, what they’re doing, and to be there to guide them in the right direction.
The Crumbley jury verdict is also setting a precedent for parental responsibility that will be expanded as each attorney uses it to make their case. So, irresponsible parents, your days of “excuse-filled explanations” have come to an end. Looking the other way when your children who love to steal cars are out doing it will hopefully come to haunt you. If someone ends up dead, when your kid is out there slinging drugs on the block and sells drugs that kill somebody, maybe the parents will be charged with involuntary manslaughter too.
Our society is at a point where it can no longer overlook the obvious. I think that is exactly what the majority of parents, and in some cases grandparents, need to hear and understand
And that’s why the jury came back with those guilty verdicts. Parents have abdicated their duties for too long and now the society is swinging the pendulum back saying, “No you can’t just ignore your child’s actions. You are just as responsible. It’s your fault, too, and we’re going to find a way to prosecute you!”
