Last month, news of another mass high school shooting arose in Oxford High School, located in Oxford Michigan. Madisyn Baldwin, 17, was a Senior who enjoyed drawing, reading and writing. She had a bright future and had already been accepted into a handful of colleges, with full-ride scholarships. Tate Myre, 16, was an Honors student and a linebacker on the football team. He was shot during an attempt to disarm the shooter and passed away in the police patrol car on his way to the hospital. He was a hero. A petition is going around online in order to get the school’s football stadium renamed after Myre. (https://www.change.org/p/oxford-high-school?recruiter=633030794&utm_campaign=signature_receipt&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=share_petition ) Hana St. Juliana, 14, is the youngest of the victims. She was a member of the school’s volleyball and basketball teams and loved babysitting and being around friends and family. Justin Shilling, 17, was the most recently announced victim who passed away in the hospital after the incident. He was a Captain on the school’s bowling team. People remember him as a bright and happy person. None of these student’s lives deserved to be cut this short while they were in an environment that was supposed to be prosperous and safe.
The shooting took place on Tuesday, November 30th, a little after noon. A Sophomore, Ethan Crumbley, started his rampage, injuring six students, one teacher, and killing four other students. Crumbley’s parents are actively involved in the investigation. Too much evidence pointed towards the suspicion that they were involved with the plans of the shooting. The shooting took place four days after Crumbley’s father brought him to a gun shop to purchase a 9mm Sig Sauer, before Crumbley posted a picture holding the weapon onto his Instagram. Within the few days in between the gun purchase and the shooting, Jennifer Crumbley wrote on her social media “mom and son day testing out his new Christmas present,”, A teacher saw Ethan searching online for gun ammunition with his phone and reported it to school officials. School personnel called his mother, who didn’t answer. While exchanging text messages with her son, she messaged him: “Lol. I’m not mad at you. You have to learn not to get caught.” The Fox 2 Detroit news station said, “A teacher finds a note on Ethan’s desk that alarms her enough to take a photo, the prosecutor says. It includes a drawing of a handgun and the words: ‘The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.’ Also depicted is a bullet with the words ‘blood everywhere’ above a person who appears to have been shot twice and is bleeding. A laughing emoji is drawn below the figure. The note also says ‘my life is useless’ and ‘the world is dead.’ This took place on the morning of the shooting. Crumbley’s parents refused to take him home after a meeting with counselors. The shooting happened a couple of hours after this meeting. Two $100 million lawsuits were filed against Oxford High School officials due to the lack of preventative measures they took the morning of the shooting. Soon after being charged with involuntary manslaughter, the pair (James and Jennifer Crumbley) disappeared, leading to a massive manhunt. Saturday, December 4th, the Crumbleys were found and arrested in Detroit. They then pleaded not guilty on their charges and the judge set a bond at $500,000 for each.
This is just another of many school shootings that are popping up across the country, and claiming the lives of innocent people. According to Education Week’s (edweek.org) School Shooting Tracker, as of December 8th 2021, there have been a total of 30 school shootings in the country. The stats show this data: 12 people killed (9 being students and children, 3 being adults and teachers) and 51 people injured. This is a 25% increase from 2019’s 24 school shootings since many schools went remote last year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The fact that we’ve only been seeing increases in these statistics shows that there needs to be change. Where do we start? Is it a parental problem? Something we can prevent at school? Or home? Is it an issue that will just go away with gun control? Or better support with mental help? Bullying prevention? The list of possible reasons could go on forever. We never know where each issue is going to start from, so prevention will take a lot of work. We need to think about the students in the present. The students of the future will be affected in a major way if we don’t see change.