Part II: The Oxford Community School's Independent Report on The Ethan Crumbley Shooting.
Part II: The Oxford Community School's Independent Report on The Ethan Crumbley Shooting.
Communication timelines and the dereliction of duty.
Read Part I HERE.
Again, as with Part I, I cannot summarize the entire 562 page Final Report document in a single Substack, nor within a series of Substack articles. I recommend reading the entire document for yourself HERE.
Here in Part II, however, I want to highlight a few employees within Oxford Community School District, specifically those who worked with Oxford High School at the time of the shooting on November 30th, of 2021, and the communication, and lack thereof, that took place beforehand. As even the Guidepost investigators confirmed;
“Our independent investigation established that the Shooter was not identified as a threat because individuals at Oxford High School failed to recognize on November 30, 2021, that the Shooter’s conduct, statements, and drawings suggested that he might cause physical harm at the school. As a result, these individuals did not escalate the Shooter’s conduct to the OHS principal, as required by District policy, and therefore the school did not perform a threat assessment of the Shooter. If an effective threat assessment had been done on November 30 – a threat assessment that complied with District policy and proper guidelines and was guided by an important District form – the Shooter would have been identified as posing a potential threat of violence. However, the responsibility for this failure does not lie solely with these individuals who interacted with the Shooter on November 30. Individuals at all levels of the Oxford Community Schools also bear responsibility for the tragedy that occurred at OHS on November 30, 2021, as set forth in detail in this report.”
Below are the Guidepost descriptions of the district’s interactions with Ethan Crumbley, before the shooting. The communication breakdown is evident. The inability to see a threat at face value highlights the inept behavior of the employees and their failure to follow their own district policies which should have cost at least two of them their jobs; those two employees being Pamela Fine, the Restorative Practices/Bullying Prevention Coordinator, and Shawn Hopkins, Ethan Crumbley’s counselor.
In summary, Guidepost stated the following regarding the events on November 29th, and November 30th (the day of the shooting), in 2021:
“On November 29, an OHS teacher alerted an OHS administrator and other staff members to certain conduct and classwork by the Shooter in her class. Specifically, the Shooter was seen looking at an image of bullets in his first-hour English Language Arts (“ELA”) class. His teacher, Jacquelyn Kubina, was concerned enough about this conduct to report it during second hour to Pamela Fine, the Restorative Practices/Bullying Prevention Coordinator; Nicholas Ejak, the Dean of Students; and Shawn Hopkins, the Shooter’s counselor. Fine responded promptly to this report by reviewing the Shooter’s disciplinary record in a school database and contacting Hopkins to see what he knew about the Shooter. Hopkins had interacted with the Shooter before in response to a ninth-grade teacher’s report of poor classroom performance and a tenth-grade teacher’s concerns about the Shooter’s emotional state. Fine recalled that Hopkins told her that he had talked with the Shooter earlier that fall about his reported sadness about the death of his dog. To the best of our knowledge, Hopkins did not mention his other touchpoints with the Shooter to Fine.
Shortly thereafter, Fine called the Shooter down to her office to meet with her and Hopkins about the image of bullets the Shooter had been viewing in ELA class. When asked to explain his conduct, the Shooter told Fine and Hopkins that he had gone to a shooting range with his mother over the weekend and that shooting was a family hobby. He said that he had been looking at images of bullets in connection with that hobby. Fine and Hopkins were aware that shooting and hunting are common pastimes in Oxford; OHS students were often talking at school about guns and hunting in November (hunting season). Accordingly, the Shooter’s explanation did not raise any red flag to Fine and Hopkins that he posed a potential threat of violence. In addition, the Shooter’s demeanor throughout this meeting was calm, compliant, and remorseful.
Fine and Hopkins told the Shooter that he could not look at any content relating to guns or shooting at school, and he indicated that he understood. After the meeting, Fine left a message for the Shooter’s mother, describing the Shooter’s conduct in ELA class and the discussion during the meeting between him, Fine, and Hopkins and telling his mother that she could call Fine back if she wished. Fine also told Ejak what had occurred in the meeting, as he had been one of the recipients of Kubina’s email that morning.
Later that day, Kubina sent Fine and Hopkins pictures of an index card that the Shooter had created for her class during the first week of school, which included a drawing of a person holding a gun, with the gun erased but still visible. This drawing did not change Fine or Hopkins’s view of the Shooter’s conduct in ELA class that morning. Because they did not view the Shooter’s conduct or classwork as indicative of a potential threat, neither Fine, Hopkins, nor Ejak contacted Principal Steven Wolf about the Shooter on November 29.
Looking objectively at what Fine, Hopkins, and Ejak knew after meeting with the Shooter on November 29 and viewing the drawing that Kubina sent to them, we cannot say that they missed a red flag that day. Hopkins had additional information about the Shooter from his prior interactions with him and reports from several teachers, but none of that information suggested on November 29 that the Shooter was a potential threat. Perhaps Fine and Hopkins could have asked additional questions during their meeting with the Shooter about his hobby or his access to a weapon, but based on the accounts of that meeting, the Shooter did not say anything concerning that would have prompted them to ask such questions. The OHS personnel who interacted with the Shooter on November 29 were not aware of the violent thoughts he expressed in his personal journal or the videos he had recorded of his torture of animals. These troubling signs were not publicly available to the OHS employees and there is no reason to believe that they could have found these materials even if they knew to look for them.
However, on November 30, the Shooter’s conduct in his first two classes of the day was significantly more concerning. First, the Shooter was caught watching a violent shooting video in ELA class, directly disobeying what Fine and Hopkins had told him the day before. His ELA teacher alerted Hopkins and Fine to this conduct before first hour was over. Because Fine was not at OHS that morning, Hopkins told her that he would handle the situation. The Shooter’s conduct in his second-hour class was even more troubling. Becky Morgan, his Geometry teacher, noticed that he had written “The thoughts won’t stop” and “Help me” on his math assignment, and she immediately thought that the Shooter needed to talk to someone. The Shooter had written several other disturbing phrases on the paper – “Blood everywhere,” “My life is useless,” “The world is dead” – and had drawn images of a gun and a bleeding body with two bullet holes.
Morgan took a picture of the Shooter’s assignment and walked to the front office to alert Fine, leaving her classroom unattended because she thought the matter was that urgent. As noted above, Fine was not there, so Morgan showed the photo to Ejak, the Dean of Students. Ejak alerted Hopkins, who was already aware of the Shooter’s watching of a violent video, and Hopkins went to Morgan’s classroom to bring the Shooter to Hopkins’s office for a meeting. Hopkins obtained the Shooter’s math assignment, which the Shooter had altered by scribbling over the drawings, crossing out most of the concerning statements, and adding new eerily-positive phrases (such as “I love my life so much!!!!” and “OHS Rocks!”).
Hopkins and Ejak met with the Shooter, and as Hopkins began to ask the Shooter questions about the statements on his math assignment, the Shooter became noticeably sad and quiet. He told Hopkins and Ejak about the deaths of a grandparent and a family pet and mentioned a friend who was no longer attending OHS. The Shooter also told Hopkins and Ejak about the difficult time he had during the COVID school shutdowns and a fight that he had with his parents the night before. Hopkins asked the Shooter if he was a threat to himself or others, and the Shooter indicated that he was not. However, based on what he saw on the Shooter’s math assignment and what the Shooter said during the meeting, Hopkins did not believe the Shooter – Hopkins believed that the Shooter was a threat to himself. Accordingly, Hopkins decided to call the Shooter’s parents to ask them to come to school for a meeting. Ejak told law enforcement later that day that he and Hopkins “asked that [the parents] come up to meet at the school because we didn't feel like it was safe to send him back to class based on the statements he wrote on that paper.”
When the Shooter’s mother called back, Hopkins told her about the Shooter’s math paper and some of the things that the Shooter had said; he also sent her pictures of the math assignment, before and after the Shooter altered it. While they waited for the Shooter’s mother to arrive, Ejak retrieved the Shooter’s backpack from Morgan’s classroom and brought it to the Shooter in Hopkins’s office.
At this point on November 30, Hopkins and Ejak possessed several new pieces of information about the Shooter and his state of mind. They knew that the Shooter had been seen watching a violent shooting video during first hour, even though Fine and Hopkins had explicitly told him not to view such content in school. They knew that the Shooter had written troubling statements and drawn disturbing pictures on his math assignment, which caused his math teacher to bring that paper directly to the office. They knew that the Shooter had experienced the deaths of a grandparent and a family pet and the loss of a friend who was no longer attending OHS. They knew that the Shooter had fought with his parents the previous night. Hopkins believed that the Shooter was untruthful when he said that he did not intend to hurt himself. These new pieces of information were layered upon what Hopkins already knew about the Shooter – that he had been looking at an image of bullets the day before in class, and that he had visited a shooting range with his mother just days earlier.
At this point, under applicable District policy, Hopkins and Ejak possessed information that suggested that the Shooter intended to cause physical harm or a threatening situation. Accordingly, under applicable District policy, Hopkins and Ejak should have called Principal Wolf or an assistant principal to consult about initiating a threat assessment. Part of that consultation should have included an analysis of whether there was reasonable suspicion to search the Shooter or his belongings.
The Shooter’s mother and father showed up at OHS to meet with the Shooter, Hopkins, and Ejak. During that meeting, Hopkins told the parents that he was concerned about the Shooter’s well-being and that he believed that the Shooter needed mental health support. He recommended that they remove the Shooter from school that day and take him to get mental health treatment, providing them with a list of mental health resources. The Shooter’s mother said that neither she nor her husband could take their son to get the recommended mental health care that day because they had to return to work. Hopkins responded by telling them that he would like them to secure mental health treatment for the Shooter as soon as possible and that he would follow up to confirm that they had done so.
Hopkins asked the Shooter’s mother to confirm some of the statements that the Shooter had made to him and Ejak earlier that day. Although Hopkins was concerned that the Shooter might hurt himself, Hopkins and Ejak did not ask the Shooter’s parents or the Shooter if the Shooter had access to a firearm or any other instrument of harm. The Shooter’s parents did not tell Hopkins and Ejak that the Shooter’s father had purchased a gun just days earlier, a gun that had been used by the Shooter over the previous weekend and that was unsecured in their home.
After the Shooter’s parents asserted that they could not take their son to obtain the recommended mental health support that day – an assertion that was undercut by testimony at a court hearing in the criminal case against the parents – the parents asked if their son could remain at school. Because Hopkins believed that it would be better to keep the Shooter among his peers in a controlled, supervised setting, and because Ejak said there was no disciplinary reason that would prevent the Shooter from returning to class, Hopkins and Ejak allowed the Shooter to remain at school.
Hopkins and Ejak had enough concerning information about the Shooter to reach out to Principal Wolf, present Wolf with that information, and allow Wolf to make the decision about conducting a threat assessment and searching the Shooter’s backpack. Wolf in turn could have asked the Shooter’s parents for consent to search the backpack, or he could have consulted with the school resource officer as to whether there was reasonable suspicion to support a nonconsensual search. Despite their excuses, the Shooter’s parents should have been required to take him out of school and to a mental health professional, as recommended. Instead, Hopkins and Ejak allowed the Shooter to return to class with his backpack, which contained the gun and ammunition he used later that day to gun down students in the hallways of OHS.”
Students also testified to investigators that they, too, had witnessed Ethan Crumbley bring a live bullet to school, along with empty shell casings of multiple calibers, and place them on his desk for others to see. At no point did a single student make mention of this to any of their teachers or administrators before the shooting took place, nor were the teachers or administrators aware that this had occurred.
Lastly, the following timeline is what Shawn Hopkins was aware of regarding Ethan Crumbley’s state of mind and academic performance, beginning in May of 2021. The Guidepost report states the following:
Of the OHS personnel, Hopkins possessed the most information about the Shooter prior to the shooting. Specifically, at the conclusion of the meeting with the Shooter and his parents, when the Shooter went to the remainder of his third-hour class with his backpack, Hopkins knew the following information:
In May 2021, the Shooter’s ninth-grade ELA teacher, Rene DeRyckere, referred the Shooter to Hopkins because the Shooter was frequently trying to sleep in class and was failing as well.
In May 2021, the Shooter’s ninth-grade Biology teacher alerted Hopkins to the Shooter’s refusal to retake a test that he had failed.
In May 2021, Hopkins called the Shooter to his office.
In early September 2021, McConnell informed Hopkins that the Shooter had written in an autobiographical “get to know you” poster that he “feels terrible” and that “his family is a mistake.” Hopkins did not speak to the Shooter about these statements.
On November 10, 2021, McConnell told Hopkins that the Shooter was having “a rough time right now” and “might need to speak to you.” When Hopkins spoke to the Shooter in response to this report, he did not ask the Shooter any questions to gather any additional information.
The Shooter had been looking at an image of bullets in ELA class on November 29, 2021 and Kubina had alerted Hopkins, Fine, and Ejak about this conduct.
The Shooter had practiced shooting with his mother at a gun range on November 27, 2021.
Kubina alerted Hopkins, Fine, and Ejak that she had found previous work by the Shooter that she believed “leans a bit toward the violent side,” although Hopkins was not aware of what this previous work was because he did not ask to see it.
The Shooter had filled out an index card in Kubina’s class that indicated that he found the COVID shutdown period to be “enjoyable” and that one of his pet peeves was when people did not cooperate; Kubina told Fine and Hopkins that she found these responses “odd.” This card also had a drawing of a loaded gun magazine and a person holding its arm out, with the person’s hand pointing an erased gun. Kubina told Hopkins and Fine that “this seemed to correlate” with “what [the Shooter] was looking at today in class.”
In ELA class on November 30, 2021, the Shooter had watched a video on his phone of people being gunned down by a shooter, directly disobeying instructions from Fine and Hopkins. Karpinski alerted Hopkins and Fine to this incident, describing it as “definitely concerning when taking into account some of his other behaviors.”
On his math assignment on November 30, the Shooter had drawn pictures of a gun, a bullet, and a person who appeared to be a shooting victim with multiple wounds and a cloud around the figure that looked like a pool of blood. On this paper, the Shooter had also written “The thoughts won’t stop,” “Help me,” “Blood everywhere,” “My life is useless,” and “The world is dead.” After his teacher saw these images and reported them to the main office, the Shooter crossed out the images of the person and the gun, scribbled over most of the statements, and wrote new positive statements on his paper.
The Shooter was sad because his grandmother and one of the family dogs had passed away recently.
A friend of the Shooter was no longer attending OHS.
My apologies for the length of this summary within the Guidepost Report, but the details are important regarding the lack of communication at OHS.
What’s important to note here is the lack of quick action as well. I fully understand that people can say, certainly after the fact, that it’s easy to comment on this situation regarding what the employees within OCSD should have done. Unfortunately, that’s a sophomoric excuse and it holds zero weight. Having more discussions between employees is not the answer. Making decisions and possessing the ability to take decisive action is what was, and is lacking, with the presence of Restorative Practices, the people who enjoy it, the districts that adopt it and certainly those who get paid to do it.
As you can see in this entire situation, only two employees suggested a parent conference with Ethan’s parents before the day of the shooting. The meeting with the parents took place eventually, but it should have occurred many months earlier, specifically regarding Ethan’s academic performance, his unwillingness to do work, his falling asleep in class, and his overall demeanor of not caring; all of which he verbalized to his teachers.
Finally, Guidepost stated that the simple act of checking Ethan’s backpack would have caused the dam to burst, as this is a logical and common sense step to take, given the severity of the situation and repetitive nature of Ethan’s frame of mind, in written form. Guidepost stated:
“If the Shooter’s backpack had been searched, that search would have revealed not only the gun that that the Shooter used in the shooting, but the journal in which he detailed his plans to commit his crimes and approximately 52 images of guns drawn on approximately 90 pages of papers. The Shooter’s journal was introduced as an exhibit at his Miller hearing, and Detective Lieutenant Willis of the OCSO testified about some of the journal entries in which the Shooter detailed his plans to obtain a powerful handgun, bring it to school, and kill as many people as he could.”
Pamela Fine, Sean Hopkins and Nicholas Ejak remain employed, to this day, within the Oxford Community School District in Oxford, Michigan.
This document alone blows-up the entire American schooling system in the blink of an eye. This 562 page report from Guidepost is a direct indictment on technology, policy, employees, incompetence, a lack of safety while always saying you’re safe, business, bureaucracy, feeling over facts, Restorative Practices and other pseudo conflict resolution methods, a lack of communication, a lack of swift action, wanting to keep children in school instead of using suspension or expulsion, and big tech and big-government “safety.” This document alone destroys the fallacy of all of those variables and their presence within the corrupt equation that is American schooling.
Now, all of those variables and entities want people paying attention to the Crumbley parent’s trial, and parents everywhere being solely to blame in an effort to gun-grab and infringe on your rights, both now and in the future. The last thing government wants is for you to blame your own local school environment where you live. If the latter occurred, the jig would be up and government’s corrupt game would be over forever. Government needs K12 schooling. Therefore, government will do what ever it has to, to protect its investment.
The school environment in America is a national security threat. Period. As stated before, this document alone, proves that this shooting was in fact real, and that the past shootings that are plastered all over the news, are fake (i.e., Sandy Hook, Uvalde, Nashville, and most recently Iowa). In those fake shootings, such a document is never produced, nor are employees fired, nor do they quit. In this case, OCSD in Michigan is actively protecting the employees who are at fault, while others have quit or retired, as the civil legal-battles continue between parents, existing employees and the district.
Again, the reason such a document is not being discussed across this nation, is not an accident. The absence of accountability is designed to keep people enslaved and plugged into the Matrix, while keeping them asleep and believing that schools are a safe and productive place to be. The reality of the situation in America today, couldn’t be further from the truth.
BIO: Dr. Sean M. Brooks is the host of the podcast American Education FM and the author of several books including; The Unmasking of American Schools: The Sanctioned Abuse of Americas Teachers and Students. He’s also on Gab, Bitchute, Rumble and Truth.
Does anyone know if 😢the shooter was on anti-depressants