For the first time, the mother of Oxford, Mi., High School mass shooter Ethan Crumbley spoke on her own behalf Thursday, taking the stand in her historic criminal trial. She told jurors that she never believed her son was a threat to others nor saw any signs that he needed mental health treatment, USA Today reports. She also addressed one of the key allegations: that she refused to bring her son home from school after being summoned over a violent drawing he had made. "There was never a time when I refused to take him home," Jennifer Crumbley told jurors. "If he wanted to go home, I would have taken him." Just hours after the meeting with school officials, her son killed four students and injured seven other people. Prosecutors have painted Crumbley as a neglectful parent who ignored warning signs before her son gunned down his classmates on Nov. 30, 2021. On Thursday, the defense tried to flip that narrative, as Jennifer Crumbley, who is facing involuntary manslaughter charges, testified and about their family life, her parenting decisions and her son.
School officials have testified about several incidents involving Ethan Crumbley before the shooting, but Crumbley said she was never told about red flags involving her son, including that he was falling asleep in class, that he had written an autobiography calling his family a mistake or that he was acting depressed and sad in Spanish class. On Nov. 30, 2021, after having met a school counselor and the dean of students Crumbley texted her son to see whether he was OK. "You can talk to us," she wrote. She was taken aback by his response to her text, writing her back: "I love you." Then came the phone call from her husband where she was told about was an active shooter at Oxford High. Crumbley talked about the impact her son's actions have had on her as a mother, and how she never believed her son was a danger to others. "As a parent you spend your whole life trying to protect your child from other dangers," she said. "You never would think you would have to protect your child from harming somebody else. That's what blew my mind. That was the hardest thing I had to stomach — was that my child harmed and killed people." Crumbley has been jailed for 26 months since the shooting. — Prosecutors on Friday tried to attack Crumbley's credibility. During cross-examination, a prosecutor reminded Crumbley — and the jury — that she could have prevented the bloodshed by taking Ethan home hours earlier when confronted with his violent drawing on a math paper.