Parents of slain Oxford students still want answers after Miller hearing
Pontiac — Buck Myre said he spent four days in court looking for the truth, waiting on any new information on how a student gunman could walk into Oxford High School in November 2021 and massacre four students, including his son, Tate.
What Myre said he found was an endless account of missed opportunities and systemic failures. He learned the teen gunman sat in the school counseling office and wanted to be stopped, hoping the police would unzip the school backpack that contained the gun he would later use to kill the four students and injure seven others.
The intervention never happened. Instead, four students died.
The testimony and evidence from the Miller hearing that concluded Friday to determine whether Ethan Crumbley is eligible for life in prison without parole only cemented that failures were everywhere, Myre said.
"That's where the biggest failure took place — the counseling office," Myre said. "He didn't walk into school, guns blazing. He walked out of the counseling office, guns blazing."
"He basically has a gun in his hand, and they couldn't snuff it out. If they can't snuff that out and we are all OK with that? That's crazy. He was in crisis, and no one could snuff it out. We need to get those questions answered so this doesn't happen again."
Families of several victims of the Nov. 30, 2021, shooting were present Friday in court for the final day of the hearing in Oakland County Circuit Court to hear evidence and arguments about whether Ethan should be eligible to be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Several of them wept as Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald gave her closing arguments, going back over days of emotional testimony from victims and eyewitnesses about the shooter's actions on the day he killed Tate Myre, 16; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17.
They included Buck Myre and his wife, Sheri; Steve St. Juliana, father of Hana, and Reina St. Juliana, Hana's sister; Craig Shilling, father of Justin; and Nicole Beausoleil, mother of Madisyn. Other Oxford parents and members of the community also attended the hearing.
The four days of emotional and graphic court hearings on whether the Oxford High School shooter should be eligible for parole were a waste of time, another father of a slain victim said Friday. Steve St. Juliana spoke to The News about the proceedings, which are required by law based on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on juvenile offenders.
"Overall, this whole thing is such a waste of time. We are spending four days and all of these resources. How many deputies — eight just in the courtroom — all day long, rotating throughout," St. Juliana said outside the courtroom.
"He has admitted to murdering four kids and how many acts of terrorism, and we are spending all this time deciding whether he should have the possibility of parole. I mean, this is ridiculous."
The shooter's defense attorney, Paulette Loftin, argued the teen was neglected and in distress and that his many cries for help and concerning behaviors were repeatedly ignored to close her argument that he should not be eligible for a sentence of life without parole.
Now, it's up to Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Kwame Rowe to determine if the shooter is eligible to spend the rest of his life in prison. Rowe is expected to release a decision Sept. 29. The teen is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 8.
St. Juliana said he does not believe the shooter should get parole.
"Him getting out of prison is in no way justice. It's very simple," he said. "This whole thing was focused on some technicality of the law. It's not focused on bringing justice to my daughter or the other victims."
St. Juliana, who is suing the state of Michigan and Michigan State Police alleging negligence in the attack, said testimony and evidence brought forth in the hearing made it even clearer that the school failed in its legal responsibility to follow its own threat assessment plans and emergency operation plans that were on the books on Nov. 30, 2021.
"It's all just brought into more focus that the school has just failed — all the way around. They talked about the leakage today. That terminology and those things are and were in the schools EOP (emergency operations plan) at the time (of the shooting)," he said.
"They spent government money to send people to be trained and follow this procedure. It was written all out. Not only were people not properly trained … (but) they didn't follow procedure, and it was an overall failure. There is still absolutely no accountability on the school's side. Nothing."
A lawyer for the Oxford district has argued that school officials were not fully responsible for the shooting and have qualified immunity shielding them from liability.
"Plaintiffs admit that the danger EC posed existed long before any defendants’ involvement," attorney Tim Mullins argued in a December court filing responding to a federal lawsuit from families of the victims, referring to Ethan Crumbley as EC. "Plaintiffs mostly argue, with the benefit of hindsight, that more should have been done. But alleged failures to do more are not actionable constitutional violations," he wrote.
St. Juliana said new threats were made against Oxford students earlier this week. Some called 9-1-1 while others reported the threats to the school and the police, St. Juliana said.
Everyone was told the threats were not credible, St. Juliana said, but no further explanation was given as to the source of the calls or what exactly happened.
Oxford school district officials confirmed that some Oxford High School students received threatening phone calls late Monday but that the threats were deemed not credible. A spokeswoman said the school increased security and reduced door access at Oxford High School on Tuesday "out of an abundance of caution."
The Oakland County Sheriff's Office and Michigan State Police could not be reached Friday for comment or more information about the threats.
"Once again, communication breakdowns, pointing fingers at each other, no accountability," St. Juliana said. "So if there is no accountability for the 30th of November 2021, there still remains no accountability now. What is going to happen the next time?"
More:Forensic psychiatrist on Oxford shooter: He didn't meet criteria for psychosis, major disorder
Myre and his wife, Sheri, were also back in court on Friday to hear the final day of testimony. Myre returned reluctantly.
"I'm glad we went for sure. It was tough to hear all that," Myre said of the days of testimony in late July and August. "We haven't gotten any answers from the school, from anybody."
The Myres, along with other Oxford families who lost children or whose children are victims of the attack, had to listen to graphic testimony from Ethan's journal that he wanted "to shoot up the school" and "be remembered through all of history."
Myre said he and his wife had chosen not to watch the surveillance video showing the shooter walking the hallways of Oxford High School on Nov. 30, 2021, shooting students multiple times at close range. Families were given the option by the prosecutor after the attack.
But in court, they had to. Sitting together, they watched for the first time video of their son walking the hallway of the high school, his backpack on one moment, and in the next, he falls to the ground. They saw school staff rushing to his side to help.
"So Sheri and I were forced to watch the video, right? We said we wouldn't watch it. We had not seen it. It was tough to watch," Myre said.
The Myres were moved to tears during the testimony of Assistant Principal Kristy Gibson-Marshall, who sobbed herself while describing her attempts to save Tate, whom she had known since he was 3.
She took his pulse and checked his vitals before trying to get his backpack off so she could give him life-saving breaths, but Tate was already blue.
"It was crushing," Gibson-Marshall testified through tears. "I had to help him. I just needed to save him. For his mom."
The couple had to sit through videos of the shooter in the midst of breakdowns in the Oakland County Jail as defense lawyers attempted to show he has mental health issues and remorse, including an instance where he said, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Please, God."
The Myres want life in prison without parole for the shooter. Nothing less.
"He murdered our kid. It was obviously planned," Buck Myre said.
They also want a police report, which they still don't have, and the upcoming report from the third-party investigators for Guidepost, due this fall. Anything to tell them what Tate did that day, who Tate spoke to last, what he ate for lunch, who was with him before he died at school.
"It's personal for our family. People throw their hands in the air and say, 'We are sorry.' That is not acceptable. It's not accountability," Buck Myre said. "We want to know the story unedited, and we are being denied that right. That’s bulls---. He is ours. Sheri and I made him.
"We are going through hell. Sheri cries every day. ... Sheri and I have not gotten to the point where we can begin healing. We don't have any answers."
Myre said he remains frustrated at the seeming complacency of society after the mass shooting and the low turnout at school board meetings for Oxford Community Schools.
"What if the shooter had someone at the school who really engaged him? What if he wanted to go to school every day and see that person? The person who puts his arm around him. But nobody was there to help him, the parents or the school. How are we OK with that?"
jchambers@detroitnews.com