Since the 1999 Columbine high school massacre in Colorado, there have been 84 mass shootings at schools across the United States. Each tragedy is uniquely horrific. But the response from lawmakers has become frustratingly predictable: condolences, partisan rhetoric, and ultimately, inaction.
That’s why we took note of how some prosecutors are pursuing these cases. They’re not just putting the gunman behind bars—they’re starting to hold the shooters’ parents responsible.
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### Parents Held Accountable: A New Approach
For the past two weeks, the father of an accused high school mass shooter has been on trial in Barrow County, Georgia. Prosecutors argue that he ignored red flags about his son before the teen shot up Apalachee High in 2024, a tragedy that left four dead.
It’s not the first time a parent has been put on trial. Tonight, we’ll look at the precedent-setting case out of Oxford, Michigan, and ask whether holding parents accountable is enough to break the cycle of school shooting violence.
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### The Oxford High School Tragedy
Four years ago, on a cold November day, a gunman opened fire at Oxford High School, about 40 miles north of Detroit. A 15-year-old student walked the halls armed with a 9-millimeter handgun, killing four schoolmates. Among them were 16-year-old Tate Myre, a star athlete and student mentor, and 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana, just three months into her freshman year.
Steve St. Juliana, Hana’s father, remembers her well:
“Hana was a bright light making people laugh—that’s what most people remember about her. Her smile and her laugh.”
Tate’s father, Buck Myre, shared his memories too:
“Tate had a crazy, crazy, awesome zest for life. He was an incredible soul.”
Both Steve St. Juliana and Buck Myre now find themselves among a growing list of families whose children have been killed in school shootings.
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### Reflections on the Nation’s Progress
**Sharyn Alfonsi:** How are we doing as a country? Moving towards this not happening again?
**Buck Myre:** We’re not moving in that direction.
**Steve St. Juliana:** Yeah, we’re going backwards at the moment.
**Buck Myre:** We don’t seem to wanna learn from ’em. I feel like we need to get in prevention.
Prevention might have protected Oxford High students from this moment. There were red flags for months.
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### Warning Signs Ignored
Prosecutors say the gunman, Ethan Crumbley, had texted his mother multiple times about seeing demons in the family home. Three months before the shooting, he assured a friend he was “just kidding” after texting, “it’s time to shoot up the school.”
Twenty-four hours before the attack, his troubling conduct escalated. A teacher emailed administrators after noticing Ethan looking at “different bullets” online in class. A school administrator left a voicemail for Ethan’s mother, who didn’t respond but later texted her son: “lol i’m not mad you have to learn not to get caught.”
The next morning, another teacher alerted administrators that Ethan’s math worksheet contained drawings of a gun, a bullet, a person bleeding, and the words: “the thoughts won’t stop help me blood everywhere.”
Ethan was taken to a guidance counselor’s office, and his parents were called in. The counselor recommended therapy and suggested the Crumbleys take their son home, but they refused, citing work commitments. The meeting lasted just 12 minutes, and Ethan went back to class unharmed. His backpack was never checked.
Two hours later, surveillance video shows the 15-year-old walking into the bathroom, pulling a gun from his backpack, entering the hallway, and starting to shoot.
Police found his journal on the bathroom floor detailing his desire and plan to shoot up his classmates. Investigators later learned that just three days before the attack, his mother had taken him to a shooting range with the same 9-millimeter handgun, which his father had purchased as an early Christmas present.
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### Holding Parents Responsible
**Sharyn Alfonsi:** Do you think his parents failed him?
**Steve St. Juliana:** Yes. There were plenty of red flags. Their answer to that crisis was to go buy him a gun and take him shooting. That’s a problem.
**Buck Myre:** I’ll never forgive him. That kid was asking for help at every level and didn’t get it. He did something horrible.
Ethan pled guilty to all charges and was sentenced to life in prison. But prosecutors argued he wasn’t the only one to blame.
His parents were each convicted of four counts of involuntary manslaughter for failing to secure the gun and ignoring the warning signs of their son’s mental health crisis. They were sentenced to at least 10 years in prison.
It’s the first time in the country that parents have been held criminally responsible for a mass school shooting committed by their child.
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### The Call for Broader Accountability
**Steve St. Juliana:** Our society refuses to take significant action to protect our children. One of the only places to put this back onto is the parents.
**Buck Myre:** What’s really unfortunate is that only the shooter and his parents have been held accountable. There’s been no accountability at the school.
**Sharyn Alfonsi:** Should the school bear some responsibility?
**Buck Myre:** Absolutely. They’re in the business of kids. The kid was in a counseling office, obviously in crisis, already had a gun, and the counseling office fumbled it.
Victims’ lawsuits against school officials and the district have been dismissed, citing Michigan’s government immunity laws, which protect public entities and employees from being sued.
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### Government Immunity: A Barrier to Justice
**Buck Myre:** Immunity is driving inaction.
**Steve St. Juliana:** Law enforcement doesn’t want to waste time on investigations because of immunity. Prosecutors don’t want to prosecute for the same reason.
**Sharyn Alfonsi:** So why bother?
**Steve St. Juliana:** Exactly. That’s where we’ve gone.
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### The Failure to Learn and Prevent
**Buck Myre:** When you want to think about accountability, only the shooter and his parents have been held accountable. No one else.
There are no national standards or federal mandates for state reviews or investigations after a school shooting. Typically, the FBI only investigates if it’s deemed an act of terror or hate crime.
After months of community pressure, the Oxford school board hired Guidepost, a private security firm, to conduct an independent investigation. But Guidepost lacked legal authority to compel testimony.
Of the 161 people they sought to interview, approximately 70 refused or didn’t respond, including two school employees who met the shooter hours before the incident.
Guidepost reported that many depositions given in court didn’t fully answer their questions. Their conclusion: teachers immediately raised concerns, but the school failed to follow established “threat assessment” protocols. Guidepost claimed, “this tragedy was avoidable.”
The Michigan Attorney General’s Office is now investigating.
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### Insights from Experts in Mass Shootings
James Densley and Jillian Peterson, criminology professors and founders of the Violence Prevention Project, have spent the last decade researching hundreds of mass shootings.
**James Densley:** After 9/11, we developed an entire infrastructure for dealing with terrorism. We don’t see that urgency with mass shootings. Instead, there are thoughts and prayers, imperfect solutions, and no real action. We need definitive action and a template for others to follow.
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### Understanding the Path to Violence
Their research, which includes interviewing shooters and those who knew them, reveals patterns:
**Jillian Peterson:** Many shooters experienced significant childhood violence, neglect, or domestic discord, laying a foundation for later violence.
**Sharyn Alfonsi:** Did you ever ask shooters if anyone could have stopped them?
**Jillian Peterson:** Yes. Every person said yes. One even said, “I think anyone could have stopped me.”
Over 90% of school mass shooters broadcast their plans online or in person before committing the act. This pattern was seen in Parkland, Florida; Uvalde, Texas; and Apalachee High in Georgia.
**Jillian Peterson:** They feel hopeless, isolated, and seek notoriety—it’s better to be seen, even if dysfunctionally.
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### Deconstructing School Security Measures
After shootings, schools often add metal detectors, clear backpacks, and conduct drills.
**Sharyn Alfonsi:** Are these emergency resources the best use of funds?
**Jillian Peterson:** No. These security measures are theatrical and do little if the threat is coming from within.
She advocates for investing in communication teams, school-based mental health services, crisis intervention, and suicide prevention.
Data repeatedly shows that the best prevention is *not* pushing kids out but *pulling them in.*
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### Programs and Funding Challenges
The researchers are part of a Minnesota pilot program training school staff to identify kids in crisis and connect them with services.
In 2022, following Uvalde, Congress passed a bipartisan bill including $1 billion in grants for school mental health services. But by April, most of that funding was discontinued. The Department of Education explained the programs conflicted with administration priorities.
In December, it awarded $208 million for credentialed school mental health providers—a fraction of the original funding.
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### A Call for Change
**Steve St. Juliana:** Gun violence is the number one killer of children in America, yet society refuses to acknowledge it. Saying “it’s the way it is” is a ridiculous answer.
This is not insurmountable. We can make great strides to prevent this from happening again. But we just aren’t.
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*Produced by Ashley Velie. Associate producer: Eliza Costas. Broadcast associate: Erin DuCharme. Edited by Michael Mongulla.*
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-parents-are-being-held-responsible-after-school-shootings-60-minutes-transcript/