Metro Detroit community members, parents react to Jennifer Crumbley verdict
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OXFORD, Michigan (WWJ) — Families who have or had children in Oxford High School say Tuesday’s verdict in Jennifer Crumbley’s trial is a relief, but at the end of the day, just another step in the legal process.
“There’s no playbook for something like this,” says George Stoffan, who had two children, both in Oxford High School at the time of the November 2021 shooting.
“We don’t talk about it much anymore. We feel like we are covering a lot of the same ground and having the same conversation over and over and it gets tiring. It gets mentally and sometimes physically tiring,” says Stoffan.
Stoffan says while the conversations with his family don’t come up like they once did, it feels like a band-aid gets ripped off every time he sees “Oxford” resurface in the headlines.
“When I see information in the news. Particularly in the national news about court dates and trials, I am triggered. I think that it is those types of events that take me back to that day,” Stoffan says. He says his mind automatically goes to the families who lost children while following Jennifer Crumbley’s verdict.
It also goes to his fellow community members and collectively everyone who has been impacted.
“I think we often think in terms of closure with a tragedy such as this but there is no closure. There’s just steps in the process, Stoffan says. “It just brings us back to that day in ways that are raw,” he said.
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