School Shooting: Oxford High School Shooting

Sadly, many terrible school shootings have occurred in recent memory, to the point that they do not even always make much of an impression on the public consciousness. But the November 30, 2021 shooting at Oxford High School in Oakland County, Michiganwhich ended in four fatalities and the injuries of seven othersis noteworthy because of the currently ongoing civil lawsuit being waged by the survivors against the dean of students, principal, three of the teachers, and two of the counselors for not taking sufficient action to protect the student body against the accused student shooter Ethan Crumbley (Ley & Carr, 2022).

The shooting began with Crumbley staging an attack in the bathroom and then followed with the alleged shooter attacking two girls in the hallway. The next victims included John Asciutto and Marco Vackaro, the former of whom was wounded, although both escaped (Ley & Carr, 2022). Vackaros brother hid for an hour in the school, terrified for his life (Ley & Carr, 2022). The civil lawsuit implicates the counselor Shawn Hopkins who testified he was concerned Crumbleys mental health and supervision was being neglected by his parents, but Hopkins failed to file the necessary paperwork with child protective services to ensure the student received the help he needed and was not a danger to others (Ley & Carr, 2022). The state charged the alleged shooters parents with involuntary manslaughter, and at their criminal

Additionally, students expressing depression or suicidal ideation who could become violent were not given adequate counseling. Although Crumbley would still have been dangerous, and there is no guarantee that psychological help could have cured him, as with the Columbine shootings, greater diligence may have flagged the students behavior and resulted in him being restrained as a danger to others and provided with help. Metal detectors and random searches of students deemed to be a potential risk would likewise have been helpful. Although the Oxford shooting exhibited many acts of negligence on the part of authorities, the students also appeared to be better aware of how to shield themselves than the Columbine victims, given their escape from the building, although…