Jennifer Crumbley trial: Dean of students says ‘no reason’ to search shooter's backpack

PONTIAC, Mich. (FOX 2) - When the Oxford High School shooter took four lives on Nov. 30, 2021, he was nearly stopped after drawings were discovered, his parents were called, and the school's dean carried his backpack to a meeting. But 11 minutes later, he went back to class, with the gun he would later use in the shooting in his bag. On Tuesday, the school's dean at the time testified that there was no reason to search the bag that day.

Nicholas Ejak was the dean of students at Oxford High School during the shooting but had only been there for a few months prior to the shooting. He met with James and Jennifer Crumbley on the morning of the shooting and explained why he was surprised that the student wasn't removed from school – but also why the bag was never searched.

On Monday, Nov. 29, 2021, Ejak testified that he was emailed by a teacher who was expressing concern about a student in class looking up bullets on his phone.

• "Good morning. I had a student during the first hour today, (shooter's name), who was on his phone looking at different bullets at the end of the first hour today, as I was walking around the room, passing out their essays. I didn't get a chance to investigate it a bit further since it was the end of the hour. Now that he's on my radar, I'm also noticing that some of his previous work that he completed from earlier in the year leans a bit toward the violent side I could bring down these things later to later today during my fifth-hour prep if you would like them."

The next day, Ejak was approached by another teacher mentioning drawings from the same student that were also concerning.

"She had said she just needed to share that a student had written some inappropriate things on an assignment. And so I told her, I kind of waved her into my office since everybody else was occupied. And she had turned her phone around and showed it to me. And I had noticed the name on the top that I recognized from the day before when Ms. Fine had shared that information with me. And my response to that was, ‘I need to go get his counselor.’  And her response was, ‘I need to get back to class'," Ejak said. 

When Ejak reviewed the note, he was concerned about what was written.

"Blood everywhere is what I noticed first. The world is dead, my life is useless. Those were the things that stood out to me," he said.

Ejak said he then went to counselor Shawn Hopkins' office to discuss the issue. 

"Before I even said a word, he said to me, 'Ethan Crumbley?' And my response was, ‘Yeah, how did you know?’ And so he had shared that he had received an email that morning from another teacher regarding Ethan Crumbley and his understanding was that's why I was there. And that's when I had shared with him that I had received a drawing from Ms. Morgan with those statements on it," Ejak said.

Hopkins then went and got the student from class and took him into the office, where Ejak was waiting. He testified he just sat and listened to the conversation and wanted to be there for support or discipline, if needed. Ejak was in the room when Hopkins called Crumbley and forwarded her the assignment, so she could see it and they could discuss the matter on speakerphone with her son.

"i believe that she said ‘What were you thinking? Why did you do this?'" Ejak said.

Oxford shooter ‘Did not pose a threat to the school’

With the Crumbley parents on the way to school, Ejak walked down the student's math class to retrieve his backpack – a school policy so it wouldn't still be in the classroom when the next class arrived.

Ejak carried the backpack to the office and handed it back to the student, not knowing there was a gun inside it. At the time, the school still had COVID policies in place and students were not using lockers. 

Ejak testified that he expected the meeting would discuss the best steps to move forward and that the Crumbley parents would take their son home. He said they provided resources for the parents to review during the meeting. They discussed the things that were influencing the student's mental well-being – including the passing of his dog, his grandmother, and his friend moving away.

When it came to the backpack, Ejak said there was no reason to look inside it.

"I did not. It wasn't necessary or rise to the occasion to do that because I didn't have any reasonable suspicion to do that," Ejak said. "Reasonable suspicion means that there needs to, by law, it says that you have to have some type of reasonable suspicious activity that would lead to searching student belongings. And so typically, that's like a report that someone has a vape pen or a weapon or that they're securing something they're not supposed to have at school or nervous behavior when you have their belongings, which is very typical of students that we have searched in the past. They usually – their behavior will change when you're in possession of their stuff. And none of that was present at that moment."

After the 11-minute conversation, when both Ejak and Hopkins recommended the student be removed from class and in the care of the parents, they both said they had to get back to work and that their son could go back to class.

"Typically, when it's recommended that parents take their children to seek medical assistance immediately they follow the direction of the mental health professional (Hopkins). And that's been my experience every time," Ejak said.

After the meeting, Ejak said it ended abruptly when the shooter said he was going to walk home and be home alone. The Crumbley parents didn't dispute that.

Hopkins interjected that he was concerned about the student being home alone.

Under cross-examination, defense attorney Shannon Smith reiterated in questioning that there wasn't reasonable suspicion to search this backpack.

"He did not pose a threat to the school," Ejak said.

"Any type of indicator that the student was going to be a threat to anybody, including himself, that would have heightened it to the next level," he said. "Any indicator that there was access to a firearm or that he had made comments about wanting to hurt anybody, any statements written there with names or 'I'm going to do this' ...those would have all been things that would have changed the process that we followed."

Two hours later, gunshots and terror would fill the halls of Oxford High School.