“MY OWN INTERNAL PRISON”
Before the judge pronounced the sentence, the Crumbleys addressed the families of the victims and the court.
“I stand today not to ask for your forgiveness as I know it may be beyond reach but to express my sincerest apologies for the pain that has been caused,” Jennifer Crumbley, 46, said. “I will be in my own internal prison for the rest of my life.”
James Crumbley, 47, told the families he was “sorry for your loss as a result of what my son did”.
“I cannot express how much I wish that I had known what was going on with him or what was going to happen because I absolutely would have done a lot of things differently,” he said.
During separate trials, the Crumbleys were accused of ignoring warnings that their son had mental health struggles.
Jennifer Crumbley said her husband bought their son the 9mm SIG Sauer handgun he used in the attack just days earlier as an early Christmas present.
She took the boy to a shooting range the day after the purchase.
MULTIPLE WARNING SIGNS
The Crumbleys were summoned to the school on the day of the shooting itself after a teacher became alarmed by a violent drawing she found on Ethan’s desk.
They were shown the drawing and advised they needed to get the boy into counselling. The parents allegedly resisted taking their son home and he returned to class.
He later entered a bathroom, emerged with the gun which had been concealed in his backpack and fired more than 30 shots.
Amid a huge number of deadly firearms incidents involving young people in the United States, pressure has been mounting to punish parents who make it possible for their children to get weapons.
The father of an Illinois man accused of killing seven people in July 2022 pleaded guilty to misdemeanour charges of “reckless conduct” for helping his son obtain the rifle used in the mass shooting.
A Virginia woman whose six-year-old son shot and severely wounded his teacher was recently sentenced to two years in prison for felony child neglect. She received an additional 21 months in prison after pleading guilty to illegally obtaining the firearm.
