Is Charging Parents the New Strategy for Combating School Violence?
There are a lot of ideas about how to reduce school shootings in the U.S. Do we need stronger gun control? Have a bigger police or security presence in schools? Improve mental health services? Recently, a new approach seems to be gaining traction. The tragic school shooting in Winder, Georgia, raises questions about parental responsibility. To what extent are parents legally to blame for their children’s actions in a school shooting?
A Quick Look at The Facts
Colt Gray fatally shot two students, two teachers, and wounded several others at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. He’s been charged with four counts of felony murder.
The father is also facing charges on the grounds that he provided a murder weapon for his son as a Christmas gift. The father did this despite being questioned by the FBI months earlier regarding a Discord post his son made threatening to "shoot up a middle school." Georgia law allows prosecutors charge adults for allowing minors to suffer "cruel or excessive physical or mental pain." He is facing eight counts of cruelty to children, two counts of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. He is facing up to 180 years in prison. The crux of the case will be whether Colt Gray consciously ignored or dismissed the very real threat his son posed to other children.
Both Colt Gray and Colin Gray are being held in custody. No bail was requested, and attorneys probably speculate it wouldn’t be allowed anyways; the offense is too severe, and the matter too sensational.
When Can Parents Be Charged?
There’s a very recent precedent for charging parents of a school shooter: the Crumbley cases. Fifteen-year-old Michigan high school student Ethan Crumbley also murdered 4 people and injured several others. Crumbley's parents were criminally charged and convicted for giving their son a gun and ignoring warning signs. Both parents were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years in prison. As with the Gray case, the weapon Crumbley used was a Christmas gift. Up until this case, charging parents was unheard of.
The fundamental reason for the conviction was for providing access to the weapon. During the trial, the defense argued it was not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the parents could know the child was a danger to others, but the prosecution insisted that the parents had several warning signs of the child’s mental struggles and could and should have secured the gun.
Karen McDonald was the Michigan prosecutor who boldly brought charges against the Crumbleys. However, she has said her case was not intended to be a blueprint for future prosecutions. McDonald told NBC and that she believed the Crumbley parents contributed so egregiously to the shooting that she hoped it wouldn't happen again. Unfortunately, it has, and her strategy may very well be used again successfully.
Colin Gray, the 54-year-old father, will likely try to get the charges dismissed.
Will Colt Gray Be Tried as An Adult?
Another controversial matter in this case is that the teenager will be tried as an adult. Despite the severity of the crime, at 14 years-old the defendant is not yet close to adulthood. There are different rules for charging children as adults across the United States. These vary depending on the state, the child’s age, the crime and the court’s discretion.
Most states will either allow or require juveniles to be tried in adult court for violent felonies.
The argument for prosecuting minors as adults is that the adult justice system is more adept at handling the potential future risks. Also, supporters of these laws justify their enforcement on the severity of the charges.
Detractors, on the other hand, condemn the long-term damage of putting minors in prison, emphasizing the importance of rehabilitation as opposed to punishment when a person is very young. They also state that incarcerating children ends up backfiring: inmate children have fewer chances of having a healthy development and an education, making them more prone to re-offending. However, as Colin Gray will be facing a life sentence, those arguments over rehabilitation may carry less weight in this case.
Death Penalty or Life-Sentence?
When the judge first read the charges against the teenager, he mentioned death penalty as a possibility. Later, he corrected the record and stated imprisonment for life as the highest penalty, with or without the possibility of parole.
The death penalty for juveniles was banned by the Supreme Court in 2005 in the case Roper v. Simmons.
On the other hand, life-sentence without parole may very well be in Colin Gray’s future since the Supreme Court banned life-without-parole sentences only for juveniles who committed non-homicidal offenses in Graham v. Florida.
More Blame to Share
When a tragedy of this magnitude unfolds, it’s only natural to try to understand the role of every person involved in the chain of events. In this situation, there are many other people at whom fingers could be pointed. Allegedly, the father was the one who purchased and gave the gun to the teenager, but is the mother also to blame? What about school counselors? What about the investigators that dismissed the case during the 2023 episode when Gray allegedly threatened to “shoot up a middle school” on his Discord account?
Some of these questions involve civil lawsuits. It’s not news to see professionals getting sued for their patients’ actions that could and should have been prevented. The same applies to parents and their children. However, these are all matters of civil court. Criminal prosecutions of parents is the new legal development, although some have argued that it is a slippery slope and better handled in civil court.
On the other hand, charging parents could bring a sense of justice to victims, or, in an ideal case, help prevent future tragedies. The risk is the possibility of prosecutorial overreach.
Related Resources
- How Did the Parents of the Michigan School Shooter End Up Facing Prison Time for Manslaughter? (FindLaw's Law and Daily Life)
- Death Penalty Sought for Buffalo Mass Shooter (FindLaw's Courtside)
- Types of Homicide Charges (FindLaw's Learn About the Law)