Prosecutor criticizes school over run-up to shooting

LANSING, Mich. — The prosecutor overseeing the case against the student accused in last week’s deadly Michigan school shooting and who took the rare step of charging his parents left open the possibility Monday that school officials could also face charges, saying “in this case, a lot could have been done different.“

Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said the investigation’s findings will determine whether school officials will be charge d in last Tuesday’s attack at Oxford High School.

But she noted that three hours before Ethan Crumbley allegedly opened fire, killing four fellow students and wounding six others and a teacher, the 15-year-old was sent back to class after a meeting between school counselors and his parents over a drawing a teacher found on his desk that included a bullet and the words “blood everywhere.”

“In this case, a lot could have been done different. I mean at that meeting he was allowed to go back to school,“she said Monday during an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“We know that he either had that weapon with him or someplace where he could have stored it in the school. But he had it in the school, there’s no question. And leaving the decision to parents about whether he goes home or not ... ” she added, not finishing the sentence.

Tim Throne, superintendent of the Oxford school district, said Crumbley and his parents met with counselors on the day of the shooting. He said counselors found the teen “calm” and didn’t believe he would harm others.

The parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley, were asked to take their son home but “flatly refused,“Throne said.

Throne said a third party will investigate the events that occurred before the school shooting in Oxford Township, a community of about 23,000 people roughly 30 miles north of Detroit. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said her office could conduct the probe and did not rule out investigating even if the school district declines her offer.

Asked whether school staffers may be charged, she said: “I’m not going to rule anything out. But we’re going into this with the hope that we can discover best practices, best policies, best procedures and make recommendations to schools around the state, possibly to the Legislature for laws that should be implemented and to ensure the safety of schoolchildren around the state.”