OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. – A federal appeals court panel decided two Oxford Community Schools officials will not face claims they pushed the Oxford High School shooter to violent action before he murdered four of his classmates.
The judges found school counselor Shawn Hopkins and dean Nicholas Ejak did not show callous indifference to the risk the shooter posed before he opened fire in the school.
According to the appeal documents, a judge said, “Hopkins and Ejak displayed the opposite of callous indifference toward the risk they perceived. Namely, Hopkin’s demand that [the shooter] ’s parents get him counseling within 48 hours. Hopkins made that demand to mitigate risk, not increase it.”
The appeal questions if Hopkins’ warning to the shooter’s parents made things riskier for students.
After the warning, the shooter returned to class with a backpack containing the gun used in the attack.
The decision ended the federal cases, but multiple civil lawsuits are still pending.