Shooter’s parents stunned counselor

A counselor testified Monday that he was “caught off guard” when the parents of a Michigan teenager refused to voluntarily take the boy home from school when confronted with a violent drawing their son made hours before he opened fire and killed four students.

Shawn Hopkins said Oxford High School didn’t demand that Ethan Crumbley go home because there were no discipline issues that day. Instead, Hopkins said he offered “multiple pages” listing mental health providers in the area and urged James and Jennifer Crumbley to seek help for their son as soon as possible.

“I didn’t feel as if it was going to be an absolute no,” Hopkins said of the prospect of the Crumbleys leaving campus with the 15-year-old after the meeting about the drawing. “But it was made quite clear that it wasn’t possible to do it that day. They had to return to work and were unable to do it.”

Hopkins was called to testify about the events that preceded the Nov. 30, 2021, attack, especially the crucial meeting with parents on the morning of the shooting. No one checked Ethan’s backpack, which was where he had stowed a 9mm gun used to shoot 11 people.

Jennifer Crumbley, 45, is charged with involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors say she and her husband were grossly negligent and could have prevented the tragedy if they had tended to their son’s mental health. They’re also accused of making a gun accessible at home.

Hopkins, who was a counselor to 400 students at Oxford, said some were stressed out in the fall of 2021, when the covid-19 pandemic was in its second year.

“We saw a lot of depression, anxiety, students struggling,” he recalled. “We saw suicide ideation and, unfortunately, suicide attempts.”

Hopkins said he was focused on Ethan’s wellbeing. Earlier that fall, school staff had expressed concerns about the boy, based partly on his writings. A teacher said the shooter was also looking up bullets on his phone the day before the shooting.

On the day of the attack, Ethan drew images of a gun and a bullet on a math assignment, and the words, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.” A teacher’s discovery led the school to call in his parents for a meeting. The teen had explained that the drawing was an idea for a video game.

Hopkins said Jennifer Crumbley acted “like it was a little bit of an inconvenience to be there.”