Lawsuit accusing Michigan school officials of ‘gross negligence’ updated with new counts

A lawsuit filed against school officials in Oxford, Mich., over a mass shooting in November that left four teenagers dead was amended last week to include 11 new counts, accusing officials and educators of “gross negligence” that caused “serious and permanent physical and emotional trauma.”

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, named Oxford Community School District superintendent Timothy Throne, Oxford High School principal Steven Wolf, dean of students Ryan Moore and other staff members, according to a copy posted online by NBC affiliate WDIV.  

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of two Oxford students who survived the shooting, argues the defendants should have known that the suspected shooter, Ethan Crumbley, 15, was unstable and a threat to others.

“The horror of November 30, 2021 was entirely preventable,” says the complaint, which seeks $100 million in damages.

“The individually named Defendants are each responsible through their actions for making the student victims less safe, causing the students to be in direct harm, and acting in a manner that was so reckless as to demonstrate a substantial lack of concern for whether an injury results,” it adds. 

The lawsuit claims that the day before the shooting, Crumbley wrote on social media, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds. See you tomorrow Oxford.”

It also noted that parents had previously raised concerns over online posts by Crumbley that suggested “violent tendencies and ideations,” but says administrators continued to say the school was safe. 

The lawsuit adds that Crumbley brought a severed bird head in a mason jar to school two weeks prior to the shooting, which was reported to school administrators, the lawsuit alleges. Administrators responded to the incident by writing that the action was “no threat to our building nor our students,” the suit claims.

The lawsuit specifically alleges that Wolf and Throne discouraged “students and parents from reporting, sharing, or otherwise discussing” warning signs from Crumbley.

Ethan Crumbley faces charges of murder and other crimes, to which he has pleaded not guilty.

James and Jennifer Crumbley, Ethan Crumbley’s parents, were also charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter for allegedly making a gun accessible to Ethan. They have also pleaded not guilty.