Bizarre letter from mother of accused high school shooter emerges
A bizarre open letter written by a US woman to former President Donald Trump has been uncovered after her son was accused of shooting up a Michigan high school.
Jennifer Crawley posted the letter to her blog on November 11, 2016, and blamed illegal immigrants and Common Core educational standards for her son’s struggles with maths at school.
Ethan, now 15, has been charged as an adult for a shooting at Oxford High School on November 30 which resulted in the deaths of four teenagers and many others injured.
In her five-year-old letter, Jennifer thanked the former president for “allowing my right to bear arms” and praised him for being “one of the most successful Business Men in my history”.
Image: web.archive.org
She then asked the then president-elect to end Common Core, a set of educational standards for school students in English literacy and mathematics.
“You see Mr Trump, I need you to stop common core,” she wrote. “My son struggles daily, and my teachers tell me they hate teaching it but they HAVE to. Their pay depends on these stupid f***ing test scores.”
“I have to pay for a tutor, why?” she continued. “Because I can’t figure out 4th grade math.”
Jennifer added that she couldn’t 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.”
She went on to complain about “illegal immigrant parents” whose children attend school where her mother teaches.
“Most of their parents are locked up. 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? Why can’t my son get those things, do we as hard working Americans not deserve that too?”
After detailing her family’s struggles accessing healthcare, Jennifer ended the letter by writing, “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, and you are it.”
She signed the lengthy letter as “A hardworking Middle Class Law Abiding Citizen who is sick of getting f***ed in the a** and would rather be grabbed by the p****,” in reference to Trump’s now infamous line about being famous.
The letter was later shared to Facebook by Jennifer’s husband, James, according to The Sun, with the comment: “My wife can be spot on. Sometimes.”
The blog has been deleted since the shooting. A copy of the blog post has been preserved on the Wayback Machine website.
The couple have been silent as their son faces charges over the fatal shooting.
After more than 100 calls were made to 911 on Tuesday, deputies rushed to the school and arrested the gunman within minutes of arriving.
Authorities claim Ethan fired 30 rounds at the school, emptying two 15-round magazines. A third was found at the scene, and he reportedly had more in his pockets.
Videos posted to social media also appear to show the 15-year-old impersonating a police officer in order to convince students to emerge from hiding.
“Sheriff’s office,” the boy says in the clip. “You can come out.”
The teacher responds saying: “We’re not taking that risk.”
After the gunman shouts back something inaudible, he called his classmates “bro”, in a moment that made the hidden students realise the person speaking had been the shooter.
Three students died during the shooting, and a fourth succumbed to his injuries the following morning.
Police parked outside Oxford High School following the shooting. Image: Getty Images
Prosecutors announced they would charge him as an adult so he could be convicted and sentenced to life in prison, as Oakland County Prosecutor Karen D. McDonald said there was a “mountain” of evidence against him at a press conference.
It was also revealed that the teen had detailed how he wanted to shoot students at the school in a journal found inside his backpack, and that he had recorded a video saying he was planning to attack the school the night before.
In the days before the incident, Ethan posted about his father’s new Sig Sauer 9mm handgun on social media and pretended it was his.
“Just got my new beauty today. SIG Sauer 9MM. Ask any questions and I will answer,” he wrote in a post last week.
The Instagram account it appeared on has since been deleted, and fake accounts began circulating online while he was in police custody.
Image: Getty Images