The mother of an accused school shooter wrote an open letter to former President Trump after he was elected in 2016 detailing her son’s struggles in school.
In the November 11, 2016 post on her blog, Jennifer Crumbley, 43, wrote that her 10-year-old son, Ethan, had been struggling in school, and blamed Common Core and illegal immigrants for her son’s apparent difficulty with math.
He would be charged as an adult five years later for a shooting at Oxford High School on November 30 that left four teenagers dead, and many others injured.
Jennifer, though, thanked the former president for standing up for her right to bear arms, and praised him for his candid demeanor, in her 2016 letter before asking the then president-elect to end Common Core, a set of educational standards for teaching and testing English and mathematics.
‘You see Mr. Trump, I need you to stop Common Core,’ Jennifer wrote, noting: ‘My son struggles daily and my teachers tell me they hate teaching it but the[y] have to. Their pay depends on these stupid f****** test scores.
‘I have to pay for a tutor, why?’ she continued, ‘because I can’t figure out fourth-grade math.
‘I used to be good at math,’ Jennifer noted, adding that she cannot afford a tutor for her son and ‘in fact, I sacrifice car insurance to make sure my son gets a good education and hopefully succeeds in life.’
Jennifer Crumbley, left, wrote an open letter to former President Trump on her blog following the 2016 election in which she appeared to blame Common Core and illegal immigrants for her son’s trouble with math. She is pictured with her husband, James, whose gun Ethan reportedly used to shoot up his high school on Tuesday
Ethan Crumbley, 15, is being charged as an adult in a school shooting at Oxford High School on Tuesday in which four teenagers were killed
In the long-winded open letter on her blog, Jennifer begged the former president to put an end to Common Core, a set of teaching and testing standards for English and mathematics, and questioned why her son could not get free tablets as she alleged the children of illegal immigrants get
At that point, Jennifer started complaining about ‘illegal immigrant parents’ and their children at a school where her mom teaches.
‘Most of their parents are locked up,’ Jennifer wrote. ‘They don’t care about learning and threaten to kill my mom for caring about their grades.’
‘Do you realize Mr. Trump that they get free tutors, free tablets from our government so they can succeed?’ she continued. ‘Why can’t my son get those things, do we as hard-working Americans not deserve that too.’
She concluded her rambling letter by saying: ‘Mr. Trump this is why I voted for you.
‘I see the change that we so desperately need. I see jobs coming back, people having to work for their handouts, money going to [those] who really deserve it.
‘I believe YOU are the president who will make these things happen.
‘I have NEVER had this much belief in one person,’ she noted, ‘and you are it.’
Jennifer signed the long-winded letter ‘A hardworking Middle Class Law Abiding Citizen who is sick of getting f***** in the a** and would rather be grabbed by the p****,’ a nod to the former president’s now infamous line about being famous.
The Sun reports that the letter was later shared to Facebook by her husband, James, who commented: ‘My wife can be spot on. Sometimes.’
Madisyn Baldwin, 17, (left) and Hana St Juliana, 14, (right) died in Tuesday’s shooting rampage at Oxford High School in suburban Detroit
Justin Shilling, 17, (left) died in the hospital on Wednesday morning and Tate Myre (right) died in the school on Tuesday
But now, five years later, the couple is exercising their right to remain silent as their son, Ethan Crumbley, faces charges for shooting up his Michigan high school and killing four students.
Deputies rushed to the school around 12:50pm on Tuesday as more than 100 calls flooded 911 dispatchers with reports of a shooter. They arrested the gunman, 15, in a hallway within minutes of their arrival with the help of an on-scene school resource officer.
The sophomore student put his hands in the air as deputies approached, police said.
Authorities claim Crumbley, now 15, fired 30 rounds at the school – emptying two 15-round magazines. A third was found on school property, and he reportedly had more in his pockets.
He reportedly shot his victims at close range, wounding them in the cheeks, jaws, shoulders and necks, after opening fire in the hallways of the school.
A video of the attack, according to assistant Prosecutor Marc Keast, showed Crumbley enter a bathroom at the school with a backpack before he emerged with a gun.
‘At that point, he deliberately aimed the gun at students and began firing at students. After students started running he continued down the hallway pointing the gun and firing (at them) and firing in classrooms and at students who were unable to escape,’ he claimed.
Video posted to social media also appeared to show Crumbley trying to convince would-be victims that it was safe to emerge from hiding as he roamed through the halls of the high school.
‘Sheriff’s office,’ the boy says. ‘You can come out.’
Students exchange glances as one whispers ‘he said it’s safe to come out.’
But the teacher responds: ‘We’re not taking that risk. The gunman shouts back something inaudible before calling his classmate ‘bro’ and in that sickening moment, classmates began jumping out a window, realizing the self-professed cop was actually the shooter.
Four students were killed in the shooting, including Tate Myre, 16, Hana St Juliana, 14, and 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin. Justin Shilling, 17, succumbed to his injuries on Wednesday morning.
Swarms of police officers swooped in and arrested the suspected gunman within five minutes
The school remains roped off to the public. The shooting unfolded at 12.50pm on Tuesday
A gunman who shot four teenagers dead and injured eight others – including a teacher – tried to coax more students out of hiding by claiming he was a sheriff and announcing that it was safe to come out
The motive behind the deadly school shooting remains unclear, but students say Ethan had been bullied at Oxford High School, although police have said there is no record of the teenager being bullied.
On Wednesday, prosecutors announced that the 15-year-old will be charged as an adult with four counts of murder and domestic terror among a total of 24 charges.
They are charging him as an adult so that he may be convicted and sentenced to life in prison, as Oakland County Prosecutor Karen D. McDonald said at a press conference that there was a ‘mountain’ of evidence against Crumbley so far.
Prosecutors revealed at the arraignment that he had detailed in a journal found in his backpack how he wanted to shoot students at the school. And, they announced, on the eve of the killings, Crumbley had recorded a video saying he was planning to launch an attack at the school the next day
Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard also revealed that Crumbley had met with his parents and teachers to discuss his ‘behavior’, just three hours before he allegedly went on the deadly shooting spree Tuesday.
At 10am that morning, his mother and father Jennifer and James were called into Oxford High School for a meeting with teachers about Ethan’s behavior.
It’s unclear what prompted the meeting, but it was the second time Ethan had been called in in two days. On Monday, the teenager met with teachers alone.
But in the days before Tuesday’s attack, Crumbley posted on Instagram to boast about his father’s new Sig Sauer 9mm handgun, pretending it was his.
‘Just got my new beauty today. SIG Sauer 9MM. Ask any questions I will answer,’ he wrote in a post last week on an Instagram account that has now been deleted. Other fake accounts were circulating online on Wednesday morning as Crumbley remained in police custody, refusing to cooperate with investigators.
Crumbley, 15, is shown in custody on Wednesday at his Zoom arraignment. He is being charged as an adult with four counts of murder, one count of terrorism and 19 other charges
Crumbley’s father James, who owns the gun he used in the attack, and his mother Jennifer are pictured on Zoom attending the arraignment
His parents, James and Jennifer, have since hired him an attorney who has advised him to plead the fifth.
Neither of the shooter’s parents have commented yet. His father, James, works for Autonomous Inc, an office software supply company. He is understood to have purchased the weapon that his son used just four days ago.
‘He had been shooting with it and posted pictures of a target and the weapon. That’s all part of what’s being looked at. We’re going to do a deep dive on the social media and all the activities of this young man,’ Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said during a Tuesday night press conference.
Authorities were also made aware of posts on social media that said there had been threats of a shooting at the roughly 1,700-student school, but Bouchard said they did not know about the rumors until after the attack.
EXCLUSIVE: ‘Nothing ever seemed off.’ Ethan Crumbley’s older brother, 18, says the school shooting suspect, 15, was an ‘average, happy kid’, got good grades, was into Minecraft and WASN’T bullied as a child
Speaking exclusively with DailyMail.com, Eli Crumbley, 18, said he can’t understand how his own sibling could suddenly snap, open fire, and kill his classmates, following the deadly rampage in Oxford, Michigan on Tuesday.
‘The Ethan I knew was just a smart boy who just seemed like an average kid,’ he said in an interview on Wednesday. ‘There was nothing that ever stood out to me. He’d never get suspended from school, or detention.
‘He didn’t suffer depression or anything like that. He woke up happy, went to school, came home and played games.’
Eli and Ethan, 15, have the same father, but different mothers. Originally from Florida, the two boys later moved to Michigan with their dad James Crumbley and his second wife, Ethan’s mom, Jennifer.
Eli, 18, (left) and Ethan, 15, (right) have the same father, but different mothers. The two boys grew up in Florida but later moved to Michigan with their dad James Crumbley and his second wife, Ethan’s mom, Jennifer
The older brother hinted at some family turmoil that prompted him to abruptly move out last March, to live with his biological mother in Florida where he grew up.
‘It mostly had to do with the relationship between my stepmother and I,’ Eli said. He wouldn’t elaborate other than to say: ‘It wasn’t as great as it could be. Moving back to Florida was the best option for me.
Ethan remained living with his parents in a small home in Oxford, less than two miles from where he opened fire.
Eli said he hadn’t spoken with Ethan or his father in two months but reached out to his dad Tuesday night only after hearing the news of a mass shooting at Oxford High School.
‘I was worried, I wanted to see if Ethan was okay because I knew he went there,’ said Eli, who also attended the school for a year. ‘And then that’s when I was receiving information otherwise.’
Unable to reach his dad, the 18-year-old called a former employer who told him that his old house in Oxford was surrounded by FBI agents.
He then learned that his own father bought the gun that Ethan used.
‘I didn’t know he had a gun till after this happened,’ he said. ‘It’s still hard to believe,’ he said. ‘I can’t believe it.’
‘As far as I knew, Ethan was always good,’ Eli added. ‘He was just quiet, kept to himself, kept his circle of friends small. He was a clean kid, didn’t smoke or do drugs, nothing.’
‘And he got good grades,’ Eli said. ‘He wanted to be an archaeologist.’
‘When I was living there, nothing seemed off, ‘ he continued. ‘We’d just walk to the bus stop in the morning, go to school, come home, maybe play some football outside or basketball. We’d just chill, wouldn’t do much.’
Ethan was on the bowling and soccer teams in middle school, he said, but didn’t play team sports in high school.
He said his brother’s biggest hobby was video games, which he’d play at night. His favorite was Minecraft.
Asked whether he knew of any other problems Ethan was experiencing, Eli noted that they had an aunt who died a couple months ago and that Ethan recently also lost his pet dog, Tank.
‘I really don’t know what his reasoning was behind this,’ Eli said.
He was surprised to hear that bullying may have been a factor. Ethan wasn’t ever bullied as a child, according to Eli.
‘I would like to talk to him,’ he said, ‘but I don’t think that’s something that’s going to happen for a while.’
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk