Michigan Supreme Court won't hear out Oxford High School mass shooting civil cases
The Michigan Supreme Court denied a request on Wednesday filed on behalf of the parents of the victims of the 2021 Oxford High School mass shooting to hear out legal arguments that the school and its employees failed to protect their kids.
The denial marks a monumental blow to civil case efforts against Oxford Community Schools by the families of students who were killed, injured or now live with the impact of the killings.
In their order, the justices said that the court was not persuaded that the issues being raised by the families and their attorneys should be reviewed by the state Supreme Court.
Attorneys representing the families argued in lower courts that Michigan's Governmental Tort Liability Act has been unconstitutionally protecting Oxford Public Schools and its employees from civil liability for their 'grossly negligent' actions prior to the November 2021 shooting. In September, the Michigan Court of Appeals sided with Oxford Schools in maintaining its immunity and the attorneys representing the students' families sought to have the state's highest court hear their arguments.
Without their day in court, Buck Myre, father of Tate Myre who was killed in the shooting at age 16, said during a news conference Wednesday the state of Michigan is telling families that it's okay if tragedies like what happened at Oxford High School happen again and again.
'It's our government saying nothing's going to change. We don't have to change, and we're willing to sacrifice kids as a gun statistic to keep doing what we're doing,' Myre said. 'I would never want anybody to walk in these shoes that we're walking in. That's why we want there to be change.'
The government should not be immune from accountability, Myre said, and every effort should be made to analyze what the school did wrong and how the lives of his son, Hana St. Juliana, 14; Justin Shilling, 17, and Madisyn Baldwin, 17, could have been saved.
Could a Michigan school shooting have been prevented?
Soon after the tragedy at Oxford High School, the public became aware that on the day of the shooting, where the shooter, then a 15-year-old student at the school, drew pictures of the gun he had brought to school on an assignment, along with a bloodied figure and the words 'Blood everywhere,', 'The world is dead.' and 'Help me.'
The shooter had several interactions in recent months with school employees about concerning behaviors like an apparent drop in mood and searching online for firearm ammunition during class. After a teacher saw what the shooter drew on his assignment, his parents were called to the school for a meeting with school staff who didn't make the parents take their son home for the day, nor did anyone at the school check his school bag for the gun.
The shooter was sentenced to Michigan's highest criminal penalty, life in prison without the possibility of parole, in December of 2023. His parents were sentenced to 10-15 years in prison on four counts of involuntary manslaughter for their role in the killings in April 2024.
Judges throw out Oxford school shooting families' case against school officials
The reality is there have been more school shootings since Oxford and there are things the world could've learned from this tragedy if the courts would allow light to shine on that day back in 2021, Meghan Gregory, mother of Keegan Gregory who survived the Oxford High School shooting said during the Wednesday news conference.
Those kids' lives matter, Gregory said, and so while Oxford Schools can hide behind immunity, the families whose lives are forever changed by the shooting will work to find a way for accountability to happen and the truth to be revealed.
'I think we're all still kind of just trying to process that they won't even listen to our case,' Gregory said. 'This was a mass casualty, this was a huge deal and the fact they don't seem to care is just, it's really disheartening.'
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San Francisco Chronicle
01-07-2025
- San Francisco Chronicle
These 24 city-owned San Francisco buildings could collapse in a major earthquake
When the next major earthquake strikes, at least 24 of San Francisco's city-owned buildings could collapse, and over two dozen more could suffer major damage. The at-risk buildings include the Hall of Justice — where tens of thousands of San Franciscans report for jury duty each year — as well as multiple fire stations, police stations and homeless shelters. That's according to the city's own Seismic Hazard Ratings (SHR), a 1 through 4 score that classifies how seismically sound — or unsound — a building is, as determined by a structural engineer. Two dozen still-unretrofitted buildings in the city's portfolio have the highest SHR score of 4, according to data shared with the Chronicle. When a sizable quake strikes those buildings, per the SHR 4 definition, 'extensive structural and nonstructural damage, potential structural collapse and/or falling hazards are anticipated which would pose high life hazards to occupants.' Twenty-six more of the city's buildings notch an SHR of 3, which means a quake is likely to deal enough damage to pose 'appreciable life hazards' to people inside. For both categories, there's a chance that the damage could be too severe to repair. The damage estimates are based on an earthquake that would produce ground shaking more intense than the 1989 6.9-magnitude Loma Prieta quake; the city calculated a 10% probability of such a quake occurring over a 50-year period. Since 1990, San Francisco has spent over $20 billion on seismic retrofits for some of its most essential public infrastructure, including City Hall, the Veterans War Memorial and Laguna Honda Hospital. City officials say San Francisco is ahead of other Bay Area cities in having a standardized and thorough method for assessing the seismic risk of its buildings. But there are still dozens of city-owned buildings that have not been retrofitted and could collapse in a major earthquake, and the Bay Area is due for one. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates a 72% chance of a 6.7-magnitude quake, a 51% chance of a 7.0-magnitude quake and a 20% chance of a 7.5-magnitude quake hitting the region in the next 30 years. Only about one-third of the city's roughly 900 buildings have been given SHRs, because conducting the assessments the ratings are based on is expensive and labor-intensive, said Raymond Lui, section manager for the Department of Public Works' structural engineering division. Some of the unassessed buildings could be SHR 3 or SHR 4s, but a computer simulation of the buildings' risks suggest that the probability of that is 'slim,' he said. State law does not require San Francisco to retrofit its existing buildings. Under the California building code, most new buildings are held to a 'collapse prevention' standard — strong enough that they won't collapse during an earthquake at least as powerful as the 7.9-magnitude quake that devastated the city in 1906. Buildings deemed more essential, like hospitals and police stations, are held to a stricter 'life safety' standard — resilient enough to provide some life safety services post-quake. That means the retrofits San Francisco has undertaken are, essentially, voluntary, and funded through voter-authorized bond measures. But funding is never a guarantee among the competing priorities in the city's capital plan. Brian Strong, the city's chief resiliency officer, said the city will be able to keep checking off retrofits if San Franciscans keep voting to support bond measures. The next Earthquake Safety and Resilience bond measure, for $350 million, is expected to go before voters in November 2028. 'It's not something that's going to happen overnight,' he said, 'but I'm confident that we're making really good progress.' Here are five of the city's most important buildings that have SHR ratings of 3 or 4 and for which there is either no plan or guaranteed funding to upgrade or replace the structure. Hall of Justice — 850 Bryant St., SHR 3 'Severely overstressed.' 'Substantial cracking.' 'Significant rocking.' Those are all descriptors of what a major earthquake could wreak upon the nearly 70-year-old Hall of Justice, per a 1992 seismic assessment report. The city has known for decades that the eight-story concrete behemoth, which houses the county's criminal courthouse, is seismically unsound. Two of the building's basic specs are enough to alarm any structural engineer: its year of construction (1958) and its main building material (concrete). Before the 1970s, some structural engineers had raised concerns that concrete buildings could be seismically unsafe. But it wasn't until after the 1971 6.6-magnitude San Fernando earthquake, which caused two brand-new concrete hospital buildings to nearly collapse and killed dozens, that those concerns were translated into major changes to California's building code. Old concrete buildings like the Hall of Justice are especially dangerous because they can collapse suddenly and spectacularly, said Bob Pekelnicky, a senior principal and structural engineer at Degenkolb Engineers. 'It's nothing and then it's just — boom,' he said. The city has been slowly relocating people from the building — the offices of the Medical Examiner and District Attorney, San Francisco Police Department's headquarters, and two county jails which previously occupied the 6th and 7th floors have all been moved out. At least 76% of the building is now vacant, according to the Superior Court of California. Aside from a few police and sheriff units, there's really only one function left in the Hall of Justice, but it's a critical one: the courts. Almost every day, judges, attorneys, journalists, people on trial and their families navigate the building's crumbling courtrooms, often out-of-service elevators and leaky sewage pipes. Close to 30,000 San Franciscans enter the Hall of Justice each year for jury duty. Because of the high cost of retrofits, city and county leaders have long sought to replace the failing building altogether, but funding has been elusive. And the Hall of Justice can't be shut down until there's somewhere to relocate the courts, city staff said a lot has been selected just north of the current building. Funding for a new courthouse would have to come at the state level. The Judicial Council of California, which oversees new courthouse construction, includes building a new Hall of Justice with 24 courtrooms in its five-year infrastructure plan. Fire Station No. 7 — 2300 Folsom St., SHR 4 The fire station on Folsom Street in the Mission District is one of eight fire stations in the city rated SHR 4. Four more stations are rated SHR 3. All of those stations have Fire Chief Dean Crispen 'very concerned' about seismic safety, but Station No. 7 is top of mind, he said. That's because in the case of a major earthquake, the station is slated to play an important role in the city's emergency response. Station No. 7 is one of the three stations that would take charge of a section of SFFD's operations after a quake, as part of a decentralized approach in the event that communications are down. One of the other two stations, Station No. 2 on Powell Street in Chinatown, is also an SHR 4. 'You can only imagine,' Crispen said, asked what would happen if Station No. 7 collapses just when it's most needed. 'We'd have to rescue our own members out of a fire house.' Though the department initially planned to look for funding to make seismic improvements, it's now hoping to replace the aging facility altogether. An estimated $65 million project to replace it was deferred from this year's 10-year capital plan. If funding can't be identified, the city plans to prioritize the project in 2028. Taraval Police Station — 2345 24th Ave., SHR 4 Five of San Francisco's 10 police stations are rated SHR 3, and two — Taraval and Ingleside — are rated SHR 4, with no plans for retrofitting yet. Taraval Station in the city's southwest corner serves San Francisco's most populous police jurisdiction, extending south from Golden Gate Park down to Daly City and east from Ocean Beach to 7th Avenue. About $168 million to make structural improvements to or replace Taraval Station was deferred from this year's capital plan. The project was deferred from last year's capital plan, too. Police and fire stations are overrepresented on the list of the city's most unsafe buildings. That's because they tend to be older buildings, and because the stations are essential, so it is difficult to take one offline to perform the upgrades, Pekelnicky said. MSC-South Shelter — 525 Fifth St., SHR 4 Every day, more than 340 homeless people flock to the South of Market shelter for a warm bed and a hot meal. The building, which has distinctive maroon awnings, is more than a century old. Two other city-owned shelters, at 260 Golden Gate Avenue and 1001 Polk Street, also have SHR 4 designations. All three are older, concrete buildings, like the Hall of Justice, meaning they lack the steel reinforcement that resists side-to-side shaking. According to the city's capital plan, the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing and the Department of Public Works are in the process of designing a seismically safe shelter to be built on the same site, but no funding has been identified. Human Services Agency headquarters — 170 Otis St., SHR 4 The city long knew that the eight-story concrete building that houses the Human Services Agency was vulnerable, but a 2018 seismic assessment showed it was more dangerous than previously thought. During a 1906-level earthquake, the 1975-constructed building is expected to be 'on the verge of partial or total collapse,' with damage including 'extensive shear wall failure' and the potential for debris to block the exits, according to the assessment. That could be catastrophic for the hundreds of people who work in the building — and for the scores more who frequent the building for services like food assistance and job training. One Human Services Agency employee said they are so scared to work in the building that they have told friends and family to sue the city if they die inside during an earthquake. The employee asked to withhold their name for fear of retaliation. In a statement, an HSA spokesperson said the agency signed a lease last month for several floors of 1455 Market Street and plans to relocate staff from 170 Otis and 1235 Mission, another SHR 4 building. The agency also plans, in the next two years, to acquire a site on the southeastern side of the city to accommodate any employees who can't fit in the Market Street building. The spokesperson did not give a timeline for the relocation out of 170 Otis and 1235 Mission but said the Market Street building is currently being renovated. A 'very real cost tradeoff' San Francisco is not an outlier in owning buildings that could collapse in an earthquake. In fact, experts say, the city is somewhat of an outlier in even knowing which of its buildings might collapse. Sarah Atkinson, a senior policy manager for hazard resilience at urban planning nonprofit SPUR, said she does not know of other cities in seismically active areas that have developed seismic hazard ratings for their portfolio of buildings. San Francisco is far ahead of both Oakland and San Jose, she said. 'I would contend that the city's probably doing more than the average,' Pekelnicky agreed. 'Could they be doing more? Of course.' Some advocacy groups have pushed for more stringent standards to be added to the building code for both new and existing buildings — to require, for example, that buildings aren't just standing after the Big One, but are functional and habitable, too. But requiring those long-term reinforcements would mean higher construction costs. 'There's a very real cost tradeoff,' Pekelnicky said. 'You get into the really hard challenge of 'who's paying for that? ' and 'is it worth the investment? ' because this is a rare earthquake that may not happen for 100, 150 years.' The high cost of building seismic resilience into construction underscores just how powerful earthquakes can be, a wakeup call for San Franciscans as public memory of the Loma Prieta quake continues to fade. 'There is no such thing as an earthquake-proof building,' city structural engineer Lui said. 'It's just gonna be how much damage you're going to sustain.'
CBS News
24-06-2025
- CBS News
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald announces bid for Michigan attorney general
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald, who is known for handling the deadly Oxford High School shooting, announced on Tuesday that she will run for the Michigan Attorney General's office. McDonald said her focus is to "put Michiganders' needs first and do what it takes to protect our freedoms and keep our communities safe." "As the people's lawyer, the attorney general represents everyone across Michigan, from our children and our most vulnerable, to business owners, to seniors, every single one of us. The attorney general protects our freedoms, upholds the law and keeps our communities safe," McDonald said in a video. McDonald was first elected in 2020 and then reelected in the 2024 election. During her first term, she handled the shooting at Oxford High School on Nov. 30, 2021. Four people were killed and seven others, including a teacher, were injured. The shooter, Ethan Crumbley, pleaded guilty to multiple charges and was sentenced to life in prison in December 2023. He was a 15-year-old student at Oxford at the time. His parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were each charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter. Each parent was found guilty and was recently sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison. In recent months, both parents filed appeals, claiming that they didn't receive a fair trial and that the prosecutor's office entered secret deals with two school officials who testified. However, an Oakland County judge denied the request for a retrial in June 2025. The case made history as the Crumbleys were the first parents to be convicted for a mass shooting committed by their children. Before she was elected prosecutor, McDonald served as a judge on the Oakland County Circuit Court, specializing in family issues such as divorce, custody, child abuse and neglect, and adoption. She also worked as an English teacher before going to law school. McDonald's sister, Kristen McDonald Rivet, was elected in 2024 to Michigan's 8th Congressional District. McDonald joins a growing list of candidates running for the seat. Former U.S. Prosecutor Mark Totten and Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit announced they were running as a Democrat. Meanwhile, attorney Kevin Kijewski announced his GOP bid for the seat. The seat is currently held by Dana Nessel, who is finishing her second term and is unable to run again due to term limits. Nessel did not announce if she is running for any local, state or federal elections.
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Yahoo
Prosecutor: Jennifer Crumbley is a greater flight risk now more than ever
The Oakland County Prosecutor's Office is imploring the Michigan Court of Appeals to keep the mother of the Oxford High School shooter locked up, maintaining she is a greater flight risk now, more than ever. In a June 20 filing with the appeals court, the prosecution argues that Jennifer Crumbley cannot be trusted to be free, especially at this stage of the game when she has already been convicted and sentenced, and the "presumption of innocence no longer applies." Crumbley was convicted and sentenced last year to 10-15 years in prison for the deaths of four students murdered by her son in the Nov. 30, 2021, mass shooting at Oxford High School. Letting her out now, the prosecution argues, is too risky, especially given her actions in the days following the shooting. Prosecutors allege the shooter's parents fled their home and hid from authorities in a building in Detroit to avoid prosecution over their actions, and inactions. "(Crumbley) has been a flight risk from the moment she was charged," Assistant Oakland County Prosecutor Joseph Shada writes in a June 20 filing with the court of appeals, alleging Crumbley "presents a greater flight risk" now, more "than ever." According to the prosecution, in the days after the shooting, Jennifer and James Crumbley, the shooter's parents, hid out in an art studio in a commercial building in Detroit, where they were discovered by police following a massive manhunt. "(The parents) liquated their assets, emptied their son's bank account, abandoned a vehicle, bought burner phones, and traveled 30 to 40 miles to hide in a commercial building in Detroit," Shada writes, adding the couple also tried to hide the license plate when they parked their car outside the building they were hiding in. According to trial testimony, a 911 tipster spotted the couple's car and called authorities. "Despite the overwhelming police presence, the mass of flashing lights, and the sound of doors being broken down, the defendants did not surrender themselves, but pretended to be asleep," Shada writes. "Their deceit was laid bare when text messages from defendants came to light showing that they suspected they had been found and were 'laying low.' " Flight risk allegations aside, the prosecution also argues that Crumbley's appeal has no merit. "A jury unanimously found that defendant was grossly negligent, and her gross negligence was a cause of the four deaths in the Oxford High School shooting. She was properly convicted of four counts of involuntary manslaughter," Shada writes, adding her "request for bond pending appeal should be denied." The prosecution's filing comes four days after the defense asked the court of appeals to release Crumbley on bond pending the outcome of her appeal, maintaining she is no threat to anyone, and that her appeal raises a "substantial question of law or fact." Perhaps most notably, it has argued, is that a judge has concluded that the prosecution intentionally withheld evidence from the defense during and before trial, yet let that misconduct slide in denying Crumbley a retrial. Additionally, the defense insists that the alleged fugitive story is not true, maintaining that the couple were never on the run, but only hiding out of fear due to death threats they were receiving. Perhaps more importantly, the defense says, the couple had plans to turn themselves in — with their lawyers — and the prosecutor knew this. But the prosecutor still launched a manhunt for the couple and declared them fugitives, the defense argues in court filings, despite knowing of the couple's surrender plans. In a court filing this week, Crumbley's appellate lawyer Michael Dezsi cites a text message that Crumbley's trial lawyer had sent Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald in 2021, telling her of plans "to walk the Crumbleys in to be booked and process." It was sent at 6:53 p.m. on Dec. 2, 2021. Prosecutor McDonald texted back: 'Ok, Let's talk in the morning.' " There was no such morning conversation, trial testimony shows. Instead, that following day, a SWAT team was amassed and a manhunt was launched, ending with the arrest of the Crumbleys in an art studio at about 1 a.m. on Dec. 4, 2021. "So why didn't the prosecution work with counsel to allow the Crumbleys to walk into a police station for processing?" Dezsi writes. "Seemingly, the prosecution was motivated by a desire to sensationalize the Crumbleys arrest as part and parcel of its broad ranging public relations 'smear campaign' that started in the hours following the incident.' Dezsi also urged the appeals court not to "give weight" to prior bond decisions involving Crumbley, who was denied bond at least eight times pending the outcome of her trial. Dezsi argues the standards for bond pretrial are different from on appeal. Specifically, he says, the only two legal standards that Crumbley must meet to be released on bond pending her appeal are proving she is not a danger to society, and that her appeal raises "a substantial question of law or fact." Dezsi maintains Crumbley meets both standards. "Mrs. Crumbley is not a danger to the public," Dezsi writes, adding she's also not a flight risk, despite the prosecution's assertions. And if the court has any flight risk concerns, he writes, it can address those by placing an electronic monitoring device on Crumbley. "The prosecution's main objection to Mrs. Crumbley's instant bond motion is that she is a 'flight risk.' … Nowhere in its response brief does the prosecution argue that Mrs. Crumbley poses a danger to others. Because she does not," Dezsi writes. More: Judge: Prosecutor broke the rules, but Crumbleys still not getting new trials Jennifer and James Crumbley made history last year after separate juries convicted both parents of involuntary manslaughter, concluding the couple's actions and inactions led to the deaths of four students murdered by their son: Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; Madisyn Baldwin, 17, and Justin Shilling, 17. Six other students and a teacher also were injured. Prosecutors argued at trial that the Crumbleys, more than anyone else, could have prevented the massacre had they done even the "smallest of things," like lock up the gun that their son snuck out of their home and used to shoot up his school, tell school officials that he had access to a gun, or brought him home from school after being notified about his troubling behavior on the morning before the shooting, when he drew a picture of a gun, a bleeding human body, and scrawled the words: "The thoughts won't stop, help me." After seeing the cryptic message during a meeting with school officials on the morning of the shootings, the Crumbleys returned to their jobs and promised to get their son help within 48 hours. Their son returned to class after school officials concluded he was no threat to himself, or others. His backpack, which contained the gun, was never searched. Two hours later, he fired his first shot. The Crumbleys maintain they had no idea their son planned to shoot up his school, never saw signs that he was mentally ill — despite prosecutors claiming otherwise — and that the gun at issue was hidden in their bedroom armoire, unloaded, with the bullets hidden in another drawer. More: Jennifer Crumbley appeals to higher court: I'm no threat. Release me on bond The shooter, who was 15 at the time of the massacre, pleaded guilty to all his crimes and is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. He also is appealing. Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas:@ This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Prosecution fights to keep Oxford school shooter's mom locked up
