- Four students were killed and seven others were injured in a Michigan school shooting in November.
- Now, student survivors are suing the school district to force an independent investigation.
- The authors of the complaint allege that the district overlooked alarming warning signs.
Survivors of a mass shooting at Michigan's Oxford High School that left four students dead and seven others injured are suing their district in hopes of forcing an independent investigation into events leading up to the tragedy.
Nineteen students who survived the massacre in late November 2021 are suing Oxford Community School District and several of its officials over allegations that their "deliberate indifference" helped give way to the shooting tragedy, according to court documents seen by Insider.
The plaintiffs allege that the district's failure to act on warning signs pointing to the shooting suspect's violent nature helped contribute to the eventual catastrophe.
The students behind the complaint are pushing for an independent investigation to determine whether the district failed to take substantive measures that could have stopped the shooting.
An Oxford Community School District spokesperson did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on Monday about the complaint or the district's plans to respond. The district said last year it plans to conduct a third-party investigation at a later date, the Detroit News reported.
The students allege "school officials acted with deliberate indifference" ahead of the shooting
The 15-year-old shooting suspect has been charged with two dozen citations including first-degree murder and terrorism, to which he's pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors have said that the suspect produced violent drawings in class, recorded himself torturing animals, and joked about shooting up a school before the fatal shooting.
Karen McDonald, the Oakland County prosecutor who is leading the case, said last year that hours before the shooting, the suspect's parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley, met with their son and school officials about violent drawings but opted to send him back to class instead of taking him home.
The students who filed the lawsuit last week allege that Oxford administrators determined the shooting suspect was "exhibiting signs of homicidal ideation" and told his parents that he should receive mental health counseling.
The students allege that by allowing the shooting suspect to return to class, "officials compounded the danger to all students at Oxford High School."
"School officials acted with deliberate indifference and created and/or increased the risk of a school shooting," the students allege.
James and Jennifer Crumbly have been charged with involuntary manslaughter and have pleaded not guilty.
This isn't the first lawsuit that people affected by the shooting have filed against the district. In December, two student survivors, sisters Bella and Riley Franz, undertook legal action against the district over similar claims that it had failed to stop the tragedy.
Riley was directly struck by a bullet, but Bella managed to avoid being hit. The sisters are seeking $100 million in damages from the district.
