From The Inside

 In news that yours truly found significant, James Crumbley was found guilty. In Michigan last week a jury found James, the father of school shooter Ethan Crumbley, guilty of four counts of involuntary manslaughter. This was the second time a parent was found guilty essentially as an accessory to the murders committed by their children. The first was a few weeks back when Ethan's mom, Jennifer, was convicted of the same crime. 

The message sent here is that ignoring your child's homicidal attentions and intentions can get you into trouble. The old saw about how "we had no idea" did not hold sway here as the trial spelled out all the ways that the Crumbleys as a family mismanaged the potential of their son's murderous rampage. Highlighting this list would be the part where school administrators called the parents to an emergency meeting at the school to discuss the picture young Ethan had drawn of a gun and a person being shot. Neither of them told staff members he had access to a weapon, and they said they couldn’t take him home, citing a busy work schedule. This with full knowledge of the murder weapon their son had purchased just days before. 

At his sentencing, the youngers Crumbley had this to say: "We are all here because of me today, what I did. Because of what I chose to do. I could not stop myself," he said, adding: "My parents did not know what I planned to do, they are not at fault."

For his crimes, Ethan was sentenced to life without parole. His parents face fifteen years each not for pulling the trigger, but for making it a lot more likely. 

For his part, James Crumbley told his sister that he was going to make it his goal in life to destroy Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald, saying that she was going to hell soon, that she better be scared and that she was done. 

Done. In the same way the Ethan's four classmates were "done" back in 2021? 

Something about rotten apples not falling far from a rotting tree.