The Shifting Of Legal Ramifications Around Bad Parenting

It’s always been there, but we’re about to experience a shift.

Obviously there has always been some legal ramifications around bad or questionable parenting, up to and including the removal of parental rights (which clears the way for some adoptions, etc.) As long as there have been parents, there have been bad ones. I don’t think any of us see this as breaking news.

However, we are entering into a slightly-different period right now, as we’re seeing a little bit with some approved trials and whatnot. First off, in Michigan we have the Crumbleys. Their son was a school shooter — 4 dead, 7 injured — and it’s widely believed they had kind of a laissez-faire approach to having a troubled child, including buying him a gun and having said gun generally unlocked. There were a lot of appeals with the Michigan State Supreme Court on this one, but ultimately they were cleared to be tried for murder, and that trial commences in January 2024: