DETROIT — A massive increase in threats against Metro Detroit schools in the wake of the Oxford High School shooting has led to an explosion in criminal charges being brought against the alleged perpetrators and prompted two local prosecutors to change how they handle threats cases.
Especially in Oakland County, where an Oxford High School student killed four of his classmates on Nov. 30, 2021, threats and related prosecution have skyrocketed. Prosecutor Karen McDonald's office charged only one threats case in 2021 before the Oxford shooting. Since then, her office has charged more than 40 threats cases.
"Nobody wants to err on the side of 'I'm sure it's not anything to worry about,'" McDonald said. "From what we are seeing, schools are not going to take a chance that it's not a serious threat."
McDonald said she became so concerned with the number of threats her office was seeing that she met with the chiefs of police and superintendents in the county to talk about what they could do.
But being proactive can be difficult, said Taylor Police Chief John Blair, as staffing levels have left them with only one school resource officer for the whole district. "The true answer to preventing or reducing these threats starts in the home, and that isn't happening," Blair said.
So McDonald created the Commission to Address Gun Violence, which is tasked with developing a data-driven approach to fighting gun violence as well as researching threat assessments in the county. The commission is also working to develop a model for training kids and adults to recognize when someone is in crisis and how to react to prevent violence.
In Macomb County, threats cases have gone up at an "alarming" rate to almost 50 cases where criminal charges have been filed this year, up from 25 cases in 2021, Prosecutor Peter Lucido said in a recent press release. That's a 100% jump.
In response, Lucido is taking an unorthodox approach: He plans to hold parents financially responsible for their children's threats. He has not done this in any cases yet, Macomb County Prosecutor spokesperson Dawn Fraylick said Wednesday.
Lucido also introduced the "hero award," which will be given anonymously to schools when a student or staff member reports threats to school officials or police.
In Wayne County, Prosecutor Kym Worthy said it only had seven threats cases brought to the office for possible charges before the Oxford shooting in 2021. Since then, threats have "spiked exponentially," and the office has handled 119 case requests.
There have been 55 school threats cases with charges this year in the county through the end of October compared with 50 juvenile cases and one adult case related to school threats in 2021. But 44 of those charges were filed in December in the days and weeks following the Oxford shooting.
All of the juveniles sentenced in Wayne County for school threats received probation. Macomb and Oakland counties did not give detailed results on their cases.
What happened post-Oxford
After Oxford, McDonald learned more about how school shootings and targeted violence incidents occur. She said she realized there were a lot of studies, data and experts out there with ideas and prevention models, but no one was talking to each other.
"I had just kind of had enough," McDonald said. "You know what, it's just not enough for me to walk away from this whole tragedy having prosecuted three people. I just am not gonna feel good about that."
In the Oxford shooting, McDonald charged student Ethan Crumbley with four counts of murder, one count of terrorism, seven counts of attempted murder and 12 counts of felony firearm. He pleaded guilty in October and will be sentenced next year.
She also charged his parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, with four counts each of involuntary manslaughter. On Tuesday, the Michigan Supreme Court delayed their trial, previously set for early 2023, and asked the Court of Appeals to consider whether there is enough evidence for them to stand trial.
In the meantime, McDonald pulled together experts from across the country for the gun violence commission. Her mission was to establish a protocol and a model for how they could not only respond to the threats, but "go upstream" and look at how to prevent them in the first place.
"What we know about school shooters is that there's always leakage and there are opportunities to intervene," McDonald said.
The goal is to create a comprehensive, evidence-based model to offer to school districts, cities and community members to reduce gun violence, according to its mission statement. Though it is mostly Oakland County based, it pulls together school and government officials, law enforcement, community members, mental health specialists, academics and family members of people killed in mass shootings across the country.
In Macomb County, Lucido's office has been working with law enforcement to educate students on threats to school safety, the consequences of a threat and how to report threats. He reiterated that he has a "zero-tolerance policy" when it comes to school threats.
"Not only do these threats drain county resources, it disrupts education," Lucido said in a statement. "These threats to Macomb County schools, the second largest school district in Michigan, are causing county and local government substantial financial losses."
Taking every threat seriously
While police might not have always forwarded all school threat cases to prosecutors before the Oxford shooting, they do now, McDonald said. They don't ignore any cases, whether it be a 10-year-old standing in line for recess who says he's going to shoot up the school, or a 16-year-old in crisis who has access to a gun, she said.
"I think there was a time where a lot of us, including myself, would have been presented with threats or school threats or young kids saying certain things and I would say 'That's probably not a serious threat,'" McDonald said. "But those times are over. ... I will never say it's probably not serious. Every single one of them is serious."
Defense attorney Jeffrey Buehner has handled a handful of school threats cases and said he has seen a change in how everyone in the criminal justice system looks at them, and it worries him.
"Prosecutors have a lot of pressure to charge these cases because there are a lot of copycat crimes out there," Buehner said. "But the vast majority are false, just kids being idiots."
In the past, Buehner said, these cases may not have been charged or would have been taken under a consent calendar, where the case is dismissed after probation is successfully completed. Now, he said he is not seeing that happen.
"Everyone is reluctant to do anything in terms of reducing charges," Buehner said. "I fully understand why they're doing this, but ... lots of kids are ending up with convictions for very serious crimes they probably shouldn't have on their record."
He's seen prosecutors charge heavily and be unwilling to offer plea deals that parents can live with, he said.
"Prosecutors around here, particularly in Oakland and Macomb, they're trying to make real examples out of these kids even though they're young and stupid," Buehner said. "It's extremely traumatic for parents and kids, and it's very difficult to move on.
"If they're going to charge young people with things like this, they have to do a much better job at educating, at getting into schools and making sure kids understand (the gravity of making a threat)."
If they make a false threat of violence and are charged as an adult, students can face up to:
— 20 years in prison for communicating a threat of terrorism
— Four years in prison for calling in a bomb threat (a felony)
— Six months in jail for malicious use of a telecommunications device (a misdemeanor)
— One year in jail for threatening violence against a school employee or student (a misdemeanor)
Not every case results in charges, though, McDonald said. If her office chooses not to charge someone, the office refers the child to the Oakland County Health Network to see what it can help with, McDonald said. There, teams of experts do threat assessments and provide resources to the children and their families.
"Not charging doesn't mean we do nothing," McDonald said. "When there's an engaged family who wants to work through things and do the right thing, prosecution isn't always the answer."
Oakland County Health Officer Vasilis Pozios said the county has created school mental health navigators, juvenile justice liaisons and an Oakland County Health Network liaison embedded in the prosecutor's office.
The county has formed teams to conduct assessments after threats are made to understand if the involved children are a risk to themselves or others and to evaluate what resources are needed to help the child. This includes talking to teachers, parents, witnesses, law enforcement and clinicians, as well as reviewing the student's social media, journals and drawings, to form a complete picture of what may be happening in the student's life.
"The initial objective is to assess the nature and severity of the threat made, whether the individual is on the pathway to violence and to identify warning behaviors that suggest violence may be imminent," Pozios said. "A threat assessment focuses less on individual characteristics of a person, such as possible psychiatric symptoms, and more on whether a person's recent behavior suggests they're moving on a path toward violence."
Educating the public
There are ways to prevent gun violence, McDonald said. The public just needs people who are willing to educate themselves and inform others about it, she said. It can be tricky because it's not just about access to guns or a mental health crisis.
"We need to be informing ... schools, law enforcement, the public of what somebody in crisis looks like and when it is time to intervene," McDonald said. "Once we know that, then what can we do to intervene?"
She gave the example of a package or suitcase sitting unattended in the middle of the airport. Everyone knows that is something to be concerned about, she said, and people know what to do because they have been repeatedly educated on it.
"We can't prosecute our way out of this problem. We really have to do the hard work," McDonald said. "That's what the commission is about. Like we have to do the hard work; we have to say it's not just about guns. ... Let's put the money into the prevention side. We know that even like the smallest of things can intervene and disrupt a school shooter."
Anyone aware of a threat against a school or a student can leave a tip with the state's OK2SAY hotline by calling 855-565-2729 or texting 652729 (OK2SAY). The hotline is 24/7 and can be anonymous.
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