(MAUI) — For some Maui wildfire victims, the holiday season has been rough, with many residents still displaced from their homes.
But the community has found a way to band together and deliver some kokua, the Hawaiian word for help, in various ways. They’re also receiving kokua from all over the world.
Sarah Verrastro, who has been living in a hotel with her 6-year-old son Myles after the devastating wildfires destroyed their Lahaina home and school, says she and her family have been struggling to get into the holiday spirit.
“Santa is really magical and smart, and he’s going to know exactly where you are on Christmas. You don’t have to worry about that,” she recalls telling her son.
Still, Verrastro told ABC News Live that she is mindful of the gifts she has received from helping hands, whether it be donated clothes or financial help from multimillion-dollar charity funds like The People’s Fund, started by Oprah Winfrey and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
“They’re giving $1,200 a month, and no, that doesn’t cover anybody’s rental payment by any extent. For us, that’s our rebuild,” she said.
There have also been direct payments from nonprofit organizations including the United Way and Maui Economic Opportunity, funded in part by Hawai’i Community Foundation which is the largest private recipient of donations, according to Micah Kane, CEO and President of Hawai’i Community Foundation. Philanthropist Mackenzie Scott donated $5 million this week and the Hawai’i Community Foundation says they have raised $163 million as of Dec. 1.
Kane said that the foundation has used $35 million of the funds raised this year toward funding grants for providing direct financial assistance, shelter, grief counseling, and more.
They intend to disburse funds in phases.
“We know that federal funding and state funding will start to dry up,” Kane said.
The remaining $125 million will be used over the next few years in a recovery and stabilization mode.
“We want to stabilize people’s lives in a way where they can thrive for the next two to three, maybe even four years as their community gets re-envisioned,” Kane said.
But some displaced residents, like Nicole Ellison and her mother Monica, have had a tough time getting assistance.
The mother and daughter say they were in transitional housing waiting to move into a new rental when the fires hit and destroyed the shelter. They say they have moved seven times since then, and since their address doesn’t match their government IDs, they say they have run into bureaucratic red tape in trying to get assistance
“Me and my family have moved seven times…in the past three and a half months,” Nicole Ellison told ABC News Live.
Nicole Ellison and her mom told ABC News Live their finances are now tight.
“I wish we could postpone Christmas just for a little while. It just makes me sad,” Monica Ellison said with tears.
Things began to turn around after the nonprofit Project Vision Hawaii was able to help the Ellisons with financial aid for a one-year lease on a home.
“So they will be paying for our rent from six months to a year,” Nicole Ellison said.
Holiday kokua has come in other forms.
Linda Higgins, an ICU nurse from San Jose, California, said she wanted to help out Maui residents after seeing the devastation, and as a self-described “Christmas nut,” she told ABC News Live that she had a fun idea.
“I just realized they lost all their stockings and they needed something to bring a smile,” Higgins said of the younger displaced residents.
She got to work sewing and stuffing, rallying friends and neighbors to help so that every child in Lahaina would have a Christmas stocking.
More than 900 stockings have been transported to the island with the help of Southwest Airlines, and have been distributed to students at Sacred Hearts School, which was destroyed in the Lahaina fire. Stockings will also be distributed to Lahaina public school students.
And as this island tries to heal emotionally, another source of help comes from something from the heart of Hawaiian culture: music.
Friends Ikaiaka Blackburn, a Maui Fire County Department captain, and Marvin Tevaga, a Maui Police Officer and father of five who lost his home in the fires, took part in a special musical performance for ABC News Live.
Blackburn says he texted Tevaga after the fire to say “Sorry.”
“He’s my brother,” Blackburn said.
Tevaga said the Puamana songs, traditional Maui hula songs, are the ones that make him hopeful about the recovery.
“My grandma is buried there and I thought about the times when I was a kid — my grandma would take me down there and we would pick plumeria,” he said.
Blackburn said the community will continue to stand together as they navigate this tragedy
“Kokua means to support. Kokua means to back up, to take care of,” he said.
ABC News’ Emily Lippiello, Becky Worley, and Derick Yanehiro contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A flood watch affecting more than 56 million Americans has been issued across 12 states, as a storm system is expected to bring severe weather to the East Coast on Sunday and Monday.
The flood watch is in effect from the Mid-Atlantic to the Northeast, beginning Sunday afternoon and continuing into Monday afternoon. This includes D.C.; Baltimore; Philadelphia; New York City; Albany, New York; Hartford, Connecticut; Burlington, Vermont; and Portland, Maine.
Rainfall totals could reach 2 to 4 inches, with some rainfall rates of half an inch per hour possible. If this moderate rainfall rate lasts over one area too long it could lead to quick runoff and urban flash flooding.
There’s a “slight risk” of excessive rainfall leading to flash flooding for parts of the coastal Northeast on Sunday, the National Weather Service said.
The rain is forecast to hit from the Florida panhandle up to near D.C. around 7 a.m. Sunday. By Sunday evening, moderate to heavy rainfall is expected to fall along the I-95 corridor.
High winds are also expected for coastal Long Island into New England later on Sunday, with wind gusts up to 60 mph possible. All of Long Island, Cape Cod and coastal Maine are under a high wind watch.
Travel from Sunday night into Monday morning is not recommended, when the heaviest rain is expected.
The NYC Emergency Management Department has issued a travel advisory for Sunday and Monday due to the potential for flooding rain and strong gusty winds.
By 7 a.m. Monday, most of the heavy rain is expected to be north of New York City and starting to exit Boston.
Heavy wet snow is also possible in upstate New York and Vermont through the afternoon. Total snow accumulations of 4 to 10 inches, with up to 15 inches locally, are possible.
Elsewhere, a moderate to strong atmospheric river is forecast to bring another period of steady rain to the Northwest late Saturday into Sunday. The most likely scenario calls for 1.5 to 2.5 inches of rain falling along the immediate coast, and up to 3 to 4 inches of rain falling across the north Oregon Coast Range.
In the South, severe thunderstorms capable of producing a few tornadoes, scattered damaging winds and large hail are possible Saturday afternoon and evening, from Louisiana to Kentucky.
A tornado watch is in effect until 7 p.m. CT for parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas.
A confirmed powerful tornado moved through northwest Tennessee Saturday afternoon. Early damage reports are coming in from Dresden and Rutherford.
This line of storms has the potential to spawn more tornadoes, as well as large hail and damaging winds, into the evening.
(NEW YORK) — As bipartisan pressure continued to mount Friday on three university presidents, including calls to resign and a donor withdrawing a $100 million gift, free speech advocates are defending how they responded when asked whether calls for “genocide of Jews” would violate their campus codes of conduct.
The ACLU, the organization that defends constitutional rights, is weighing in after the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and MIT faced furor for giving conditional answers to pointed questioning at a congressional hearing from New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik on how they would handle remarks in their university communities calling for the “genocide of Jews” and other phrases critics denounce as antisemitic.
The ACLU defended students’ right to use terms such as “from the river to the sea” — a slogan used by Hamas, designated by the U.S. as a terrorist group — that supporters of Israel say means wiping Israel and its people off the map.
“There is no ‘controversial speech’ exception to the First Amendment. The First Amendment and the principles of academic freedom require higher education institutions to safeguard all protected speech — even when that speech is contentious or offensive,” Jenna Leventoff, senior policy counsel at ACLU, told ABC News.
“In fact, the First Amendment exists to protect exactly this kind of political expression. Therefore, phrases like ‘from the river to the sea,’ ‘no ceasefire,’ ‘make America great again,’ and ‘no justice, no peace’ are protected.”
The First Amendment “protects speech no matter how offensive its content,” according to the ACLU.
“Restrictions on speech by public colleges and universities amount to government censorship, in violation of the Constitution,” the ACLU said in its “speech on campus” guidance. “Such restrictions deprive students of their right to invite speech they wish to hear, debate speech with which they disagree, and protest speech they find bigoted or offensive.”
“An open society depends on liberal education, and the whole enterprise of liberal education is founded on the principle of free speech,” the ACLU continued.
The ACLU has gone further to say “Where racist, misogynist, homophobic, and transphobic speech is concerned, the ACLU believes that more speech — not less — is the answer most consistent with our constitutional values.”
While the ACLU is not exactly offering full-throated support for the universities’ presidents themselves or their comments, the organization defends their decision to allow free speech on campus — no matter how controversial or targeted it may be.
After facing backlash for testifying that it would be a “context-dependent decision” on whether calls for “genocide of Jews” violated the university’s code of conduct, Penn President Liz Magill issued an apology video in which she said the university would reexamine its policies immediately.
The civil liberties group Foundation of Individual Rights and Expression said Magill’s decision to clarify and evaluate school policies is “deeply troubling” because it indicates she may alter the free speech the organization seeks to preserve. Also, it is a signal that the school is “willing to abandon its commitment to freedom of expression.”
“Were Penn to retreat from the robust protection of expressive rights, university administrators would make inevitably political decisions about who may speak and what may be said on campus,” FIRE wrote in a statement. “Such a result would undoubtedly compromise the knowledge-generating process free expression enables and for which universities exist.”
Call for presidents’ removal grow; donations could dwindle
Meanwhile, the presidents and their universities continue to face backlash from those who believe their responses were too weak and their policies in need of further scrutiny, including through an investigation led by the House committee that called them to testify, setting off the new furor.
The Republican-led House Education Committee said it will investigate the policies and disciplinary procedures at Penn, Harvard and MIT, the committee’s chairwoman, Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx, said Thursday. The probe will include “substantial document requests” and subpoenas “if a full response is not immediately forthcoming,” Foxx said in a statement.
Calls for the ouster of the presidents continues to grow — after Stefanik called for their resignations during the hearing.
Pennsylvania’s Republican members of Congress sent Penn’s Board of Trustees a letter Thursday calling for Magill’s resignation, in part, because during Tuesday’s hearing she “refused to say whether calling for the genocide of all Jewish people is bullying and harassment according to the university’s code of conduct.”
“On December 5th, she confirmed that hateful, dangerous rhetoric is welcomed on the grounds of one of the oldest higher education institutions in the United States. Her actions in front of Congress were an embarrassment to the university, its student body, and its vast network of proud alumni,” the six Republicans wrote in the letter. “Quite frankly, it was an utter disgrace to our commonwealth and the entire nation.”
New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said the three presidents should step down.
“You cannot call for the genocide of Jews, the genocide of any group of people, and not say that that’s harassment,” she told Fox News.
The Daily Pennsylvanian reports the Board of Advisors at Wharton — Penn’s business school — is calling on the school to immediately replace Magill.
Donors are also joining the call to remove the presidents — and threatening to pull their gifts if changes are not made.
Penn mega-donor Ross Stevens, the CEO of Stone Ridge Asset Management, said he will pull his roughly $100 million gift to the university because the of the school’s “permissive approach to hate speech calling for violence against Jews and laissez faire attitude toward harassment and discrimination against Jewish students,” according to a letter Stevens’ lawyer sent the university. Stevens’ donation could be available should Magill step down, the letter said. Axios first reported Stevens’ decision.
Another major Penn donor and former governor of Utah, Jon Huntsman, said his foundation will “close its checkbook” on future donations, according to reporting from the Daily Pennsylvanian.
A Penn spokesman said it wouldn’t comment on the personal decisions of its donors. The university declined to comment on calls for its president’s resignation.
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who is Jewish, spoke at the lighting of the National Menorah Thursday night where he condemned the university presidents’ remarks, saying that their “lack of moral clarity is simply unacceptable.”
“Let me be clear: When Jews are targeted because of their beliefs or identity, and when Israel is singled out because of anti-Jewish hatred, that is antisemitism and it must be condemned, and condemned unequivocally and without context,” he said.
Harvard did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.
MIT pointed ABC News to a statement from its governing board, the Executive Committee of the MIT Corporation, that said it backs President Kornbluth “for her outstanding academic leadership, her judgment, her integrity, her moral compass, and her ability to unite our community around MIT’s core values.”
“She has done excellent work in leading our community, including in addressing antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate, which we reject utterly at MIT. She has our full and unreserved support,” the statement said.
ABC News’ Brian Hartman contributed to this report.
(LAS VEGAS) — When gunfire erupted at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, a woman hiding alone under an office desk called 911 in tears.
“Someone’s shooting inside the office,” she said. “Please hurry.”
The operator asked her how long ago she heard the shots, and she responded, “They’re happening right now.”
The operator asked if anyone else was with her, and she replied, “It’s just me. My boss is working from home.”
Newly released 911 calls provide a heartbreaking look inside the chaos on campus during Wednesday’s mass shooting in which killed three faculty members were killed and and one faculty member was injured.
The suspected gunman, Anthony Polito, who was armed with a legally purchased handgun, died at the scene following a firefight with responding officers about 10 minutes after shots were first reported at UNLV’s Beam Hall.
The officers were identified on Friday as Det. Nathaniel Drum, who has been employed with the University Police services since 2017, and officer Damien Garcia, who has been on the force since 2018.
Per department policy, both officers have been placed on administrative leave amid an investigation into the shooting, according to Adam Garcia, police chief for the University Police Services Southern Command.
“These two officers are heroes,” Garcia said during a press briefing on Friday. “They kept the worst from becoming a bloodbath.”
A second 911 caller said, “I was getting off the elevator. I heard shots fired and screaming and I ran … Lots of students are running out … Two officers ran into the building and I ran out of the building.”
Scared parents also called 911 reporting that their children were hiding in classrooms.
One mom said her daughter could hear the gunshots. While the mom was on the phone with 911, she got a text from her daughter saying, “Mom, I’m scared.”
The operator said the mother should tell her daughter “to stay calm — and tell her do not open that door unless she hears them yelling. They will announce, ‘Metro police.'”
The investigation is ongoing.
Polito had applied for a college professorship at UNLV but was not hired, according to sources.
Police said Polito had a list of people “he was seeking” at UNLV, but none of the individuals on the target list were victims in the shooting.
Authorities believe Polito spent a few minutes looking for people on the list, but was unsuccessful in finding them and then shot other victims who happened to be in the building, a law enforcement source told ABC News.
ABC News’ Vanessa Navarrete and Cory Peeler contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Four hours of tense testimony on Capitol Hill this week with presidents of the nation’s most elite colleges has kicked off a flood of anger from donors, alumni and politicians — but it’s also reignited simmering tensions for students.
College campuses, often the heart of debate in the U.S., have been a central point of protest and dialogue on the Israel-Hamas war for the past two months — a role that also has brought tension, discomfort and pain, Jewish and Palestinian students said in interviews.
Where they do agree is that they broadly don’t feel supported by their school administrations, something the hearing underscored, they said.
“We are concerned that they’re not addressing [antisemitism or Islamophobia] because they’re so afraid and they’re so paralyzed by not upsetting people,” said Talia Khan, a graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and president of the MIT Israel Alliance. “And that’s the problem is that there’s no student on campus who’s happy — Jewish students aren’t happy, Muslim students aren’t happy.”
The presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University and the MIT were grilled for hours by the House Education Committee earlier this week. The leaders repeatedly condemned antisemitism, vowing to do more to combat it.
But it was a line of questioning from New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik quizzing them on how they would respond to calls for the “genocide of Jews,” that drew the most attention.
Stefanik’s question was about chants of “intifada,” the Arab word for “shaking off” or “uprising,” at protests on campuses.
“Does that speech not cross that barrier, does that speech not call for the genocide of Jews and the elimination of Israel?” she asked. “Is that speech according to the code of conduct or not?”
“We embrace a commitment to free expression and give a wide berth to free expression, even views that are objectionable,” said Claudine Gay, the president of Harvard University.
Asked the same question, Elizabeth Magill, president of Penn, said “it is a context-dependent decision.” Sally Kornbluth, the president of MIT, said it would be investigated as harassment, “if pervasive and severe.”
The presidents refused to give a simple “yes” or “no” answer. Instead, they gave carefully worded responses touching on the tricky issue of free speech.
The viral moment sparked condemnations from donors, governors and senators, as well as calls for the leaders to step down.
Amid the firestorm of backlash, the presidents of Harvard and Penn issued follow-up statements to clarify and walk back their testimonies.
Khan, the student at MIT, said the testimony underscored the university’s failure to protect students.
“We’re here to study. I’m here to do a PhD in mechanical engineering,” Khan said. “I want them to do something to make us feel safe.”
This was echoed by a Penn students who spoke at a press conference on Capitol Hill earlier this week.
“As a student, I do not feel safe,” Penn student Eyal Yakoby said.
Others at the press conference, such as Jonathan Frieden, a Harvard Law student, pleaded for protection.
“Do something,” Frieden said. “Protect Jewish people. Protect your students.”
It comes as Penn and Harvard — as well as a growing list of nearly 20 school districts and universities since the war began — are under investigation for complaints of antisemitism or Islamophobia on campus, both of which have risen at alarming levels.
But Palestinian students at Harvard say that while their schools are attempting to address antisemitism with task forces — even discussing it on Capitol Hill — Islamophobia has been treated with far less gravity.
Students say the fears are growing, particularly after three college students of Palestinian descent were shot and seriously injured in Vermont last month.
“We have nothing equivalent for Palestinian, Arab, Muslim students or supporters of Palestine to address or combat the very obvious, very public, very targeted harassment campaigns that we’ve been facing,” said Tala Alfoqaha, a Palestinian-American law student at Harvard.
After at least 30 student groups released a letter, in part, blaming the Israeli regime for “all unfolding violence” in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, they have faced public outrage and harassment including doxxing. Several groups have since retracted their signatures and the authors later released a statement clarifying that they do not condone violence against civilians.
“Our statement’s purpose was clear: to address the root cause of all the violence unfolding. To state what should be clear: PSC staunchly opposes all violence against all innocent life and laments all human suffering,” the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee said in a subsequent statement released.
Alfoqaha said her name and face have been broadcast on a truck with a billboard on it that drives around campus, doxxing pro-Palestinian students, and a website has been put up in her name, which has led to professional consequences.
“It feels like we are being collectively gaslit,” she said. “I feel like the institution’s response, our government’s response, the responses of our politicians that refuse to acknowledge Palestinians suffering continue to leave the Palestinian story as less than a footnote in their narrative of events.”
She said she watched the hearing with dismay.
“[Stefanik] is asking about, you know, these hypothetical genocides that Palestinians obviously do not support, when there is an actual genocide taking place against Palestinians,” she said.
More than 17,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, amid the Israeli offensive in response to Hamas’ the Oct. 7 terror attack that killed more than 1,200 people in Israel, according to Israeli officials.
Lea Kayali, also a Palestinian-American student at Harvard Law School, says she, too, took issue with the line of questioning, which she says conflated protests for Palestinian freedom with antisemitism.
“To be honest, at this point, I have absolutely no faith that the Harvard administration is going to be using their platform to espouse the truth about what students on campus stand for when they say ‘free Palestine,'” she said.
“I have no hope that the administration is going to support us or even, you know, try to create space for us to live normally as students and express our outrage about a genocide.”
Gabriella Martini, a graduate student in a group called Jews for Ceasefire at MIT — a group of MIT students and alumni calling for a ceasefire and end of the occupation, according to its Instagram account — said she’s worried the doxxing that’s happening at Harvard could make its way down the road to MIT.
“The pattern of institutional support for students who are advocating for Palestine, and not just Jewish students, has been so subpar that I think we’re all struggling to fully trust that the institutions will come to our aid,” she said.
Martini, along with other students in Jews for Ceasefire, traveled to Capitol Hill for the hearing.
Watching it, they said their perspective on what is happening on college campuses across the country felt ignored. The national conversation has pitted Jewish students against Arab and Muslim students, even though there are a multitude of views, Martini said.
“I really reject the idea that advocating for the Palestinian people is inherently antisemitic,” Martini said.
There has been a lot of discomfort and pain on campus, she said, as people realize their views are “in tension” with one another.
Martini said she felt sympathetic to Israeli students on campus or people with friends and family in Israel “who feel like they’re really wrestling with grief after Oct. 7 and that it’s very painful to be in spaces where people are protesting on behalf of the Palestinian people, like they feel like their experience is not being acknowledged fully.”
(NEW YORK) — Respiratory illness activity is elevated or increasing across most areas of the United States, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In total, 15 states plus New York City are experiencing “high” or “very high” levels of respiratory illness activity, defined as people going to the doctor with symptoms from any respiratory disease including flu, COVID, RSV and the common cold.
COVID-19 and flu hospitalizations appear to be trending upward while RSV hospitalizations appear to be to be stable, the data shows.
Weekly COVID-19 hospitalizations have reached levels not seen since the end of February with 22,513 recorded the week ending Dec. 2. However, they remain lower than rates seen at the same time last year.
COVID-19 hospitalization rates are elevated for infants and young children and highest among senior citizens, meaning serious illness is mainly affecting the oldest and youngest Americans.
COVID-19 deaths are currently stable, but experts have previously warned that because deaths are a lagging indicator, the number of fatalities due to the virus could rise over the next few weeks.
The CDC is actively tracking a rising variant known as JN.1, a descendant of the BA.2.86 omicron subvariant, according to an update posted by the federal agency on Friday.
Currently, JN.1 makes up an estimated 21% of cases. While some scientists believe it may be more transmissible due to its continued growth, there is currently no evidence it is more severe than previous variants.
Meanwhile, flu activity continues to increase with the southeast and south-central areas of the U.S. reporting the highest levels of activity, according to the CDC. Modeling from the federal health agency estimates flu infections are growing or likely growing in 34 states, declining or likely decline in one state, and stable or uncertain in four states.
Flu hospitalizations are also increasing, yet the number of new admissions remains low at 5,753 admitted the week ending Dec. 2, an increase from 4,268 the previous week, data shows.
The CDC estimates that there have been at least 2.6 million illnesses, 26,000 hospitalizations, and 1,600 deaths from flu so far this season.
Meanwhile, RSV weekly hospitalization rates have very slightly declined to 2.4 per 100,000 for the week ending Dec. 2 from 2.5 per 100,000 the previous week. RSV hospitalizations remain elevated among young children under 4 and are increasing in older adults over 65.
It comes as the White House urged the makers of RSV immunizations this week that protect infants and toddlers to speed up production to increase access.
The monoclonal antibody shots, which are a bit different than a vaccine but still provide protection, have been in high demand and short supply.
Meanwhile, hospitals in some areas of the U.S., such as in Washington state, are reinstating masking.
At Northwest Healthcare Response Network in western Washington, officials said RSV cases hit a threshold required updating rules on masking throughout its partner hospitals, according to local ABC News affiliate KOMO News.
Additionally, Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma reached the RSV threshold earlier this week and the flu threshold on Thursday, officials told KOMO News.
When it comes to vaccinations, data showed much higher uptake for the flu vaccine than for the COVID-19 or RSV vaccine.
As of Dec. 2, 40.8% of adults and 41.6% of children have received the annual flu shot, CDC data shows. Comparatively, 17.2% of adults and 7.7% of children have received the updated COVID-19 vaccine and just 15.9% of adults aged 60 and older have received the new RSV vaccine.
Dr. Philip Huang, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services, advised people to follow the same mitigation measures they have for previous seasons.
“Everything that we’re hearing about it is not any new virus or new pathogen, it is the common things that we see every season that perhaps coming together,” he said. “The preventive things are all the same, you know, stay home if you’re sick, wash your hands, cough into your sleeve, don’t rub your eyes, nose and mouth, get up to date on the vaccinations.”
Huang said he might advise wearing a mask if you’re around someone who is at a higher risk of severe illness or if you’re in a crowded area with poor ventilation.
(PONTIAC, Mich.) — Ethan Crumbley was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for killing four of his classmates and wounding others in the 2021 Michigan school shooting.
Crumbley, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty last year to 24 charges, including first-degree premeditated murder and terrorism causing death.
In handing out the sentence, Judge Kwamé Rowe emphasized the “extensive planning” of the school shooting and said Crumbley could have changed his mind at any point but didn’t.
“He continued to walk through the school, picking and choosing who was going to die,” Rowe said, calling the attack on the classmates an “execution” and “torture.”
Rowe previously ruled that the sentence of life without parole was appropriate despite Crumbley’s age at the time of the shooting.
Prosecutors had said there were no plea deals, reductions or agreements regarding sentencing. The charges of first-degree premeditated murder and terrorism causing death both carried a minimum sentence of 25 to 40 years.
Crumbley addressed the court in brief remarks on Friday ahead of sentencing and told the judge he wants the victims to be happy and asked Rowe to impose whatever sentence they asked for.
“I am a really bad person, I have done terrible things that no one should ever do,” he said.
Four students — Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Hana St. Juliana, 14; Tate Myre, 16; and Justin Shilling, 17 — were killed when Crumbley opened fire at Oxford High School on Nov. 30, 2021. Six students and a teacher were wounded in the shooting rampage.
The families of victims and survivors of the shooting provided emotional impact statements ahead of the sentencing on Friday. Parents recalled the agony of waiting to hear what happened to their children that day, only to then learn that they were killed.
In tears, Buck Myre, father of victim Tate Myre, remembered how his wife put her head in her hands and cried, “Not my baby boy,” and described the awful toll the shooting has taken on his family ever since.
“For the past two years, our family has been navigating our way through complete hell,” he said.
Addressing Crumbley, Buck Myre said: “I understand from journal entries, this was the desired outcome — for us to feel the pain that you had. I will tell you this: We are miserable. We miss Tate. Our family has a permanent hole in it that can never be fixed, ever.”
“As we fight and claw our way through this journey, we realize that we are completely miserable, and there does not appear to be a way out. So to this day, you were winning,” he continued. “But today is a day where the tides change. Today, we are going to take hours back. We’re all cried out. We’re all tired out. “
Buck Myre said that they are working to find a way to forgive Crumbley, his parents and the school.
“What other options do we have? Be miserable for the rest of our lives and rob our family of normalcy?” he said. “We want you to spend the rest of your life rotting in your cell. What you stole from us is not replaceable. But what we won’t let you steal from us is a life of normalcy and we’ll find a way to get there through forgiveness and through putting good into this world.”
Madisyn’s mother, Nicole Beausoleil, said she wanted her daughter to be remembered by her name — and not as a shooting victim.
“Madisyn lives in all of us. Her legacy remains. Her kindness continues, now and forever,” Beausoleil said. “She will always be the heartbeat of our family.”
She refused to say the shooter’s name, calling him “trash” and “waste,” and asked the judge to give him the same life sentence that she has received — one “that I cannot escape from.”
“Day by day passes, I hope his life seems more meaningless, lost and forgotten,” she said.
The father of Hana St. Juliana asked for life without parole for the shooter’s “heinous crime.”
“If it were your child who was killed in such a cowardly manner, would you be satisfied that justice was served with anything less than him spending the rest of his life in prison?” Steve St. Juliana asked the court.
In the wake of his daughter’s murder, he said he is a “shell of the person I used to be.”
“A few paragraphs of words describing Hana can in no way fully capture her truly beautiful, caring soul nor impart her unlimited potential,” he said. “Hana was an absolutely beautiful and thoughtful person.”
Craig Shilling spoke while wearing a sweatshirt adorned with a photo of his son, Justin Shilling.
“One could venture to say that there are no words that can accurately describe the pain that we feel on a daily basis,” he said. “I have PTSD and struggle most days even to get out of bed.”
He said he still finds himself waiting for his son to come home each day.
“Never in a million years did I think that something like this was going to happen to me,” he said. “There’s absolutely no way you can prepare yourself for this level of pain.”
He said he believes the punishment should be the death penalty, which is banned in Michigan. In lieu of that, he asked the judge to “lock this son of a bitch up for the rest of his pathetic life.”
“His blatant lack of human decency and disturbing thoughts on life in general do not in any way warrant a second chance,” he said. “My son doesn’t get a second chance and neither should he.”
Justin Shilling’s mother, Jill Soave, also asked the judge to sentence the shooter to life without the possibility of parole.
“Your Honor, it’s almost impossible to find the human words to describe my grief, pain, trauma and rage,” she said. “The manner in which my son Justin was so cold-heartedly, methodically executed shows clearly the pure evil and malice of the shooter.”
She recounted how her son spent his last moments protecting shooting survivor Keegan Gregory and saved six more lives through organ donation.
“His future was so bright and full of possibilities,” she said. “He will always be my little sweetheart.”
Keegan Gregory told the court about the moments he and Justin Shilling were trapped in a bathroom with the shooter.
“We were stuck, helpless and cornered with no defense,” he said. “It was and always will be the most terrifying moment of my life — being cornered with no option but to run out of the bathroom as fast as I could, hoping to live.”
He said he was in “absolute disbelief and shock” when Justin Shilling was shot, and continues to feel the guilt of surviving.
“I know that if it wasn’t Justin’s life that was taken, it could have been mine, and I’m forever grateful to him for that,” he said. “I almost feel guilty about being alive, knowing that Justin’s family is living in grief.”
“That guilt is now compounded with sadness, fear, anxiety and trauma,” he said, describing how he continues to deal with flashbacks, fear and paranoia and has trouble trusting people.
He asked for a sentence “that makes sure he won’t ever hurt anyone again,” though hoped that Crumbley receives counseling to understand the impact of his actions.
Nearly 30 victims addressed the court on Friday. Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said more considered speaking but decided they were unable to, “which is further evidence of the trauma.”
McDonald urged the judge to “give them the justice they deserve” and sentence Crumbley to life without parole.
Deborah McKelvy, Crumbley’s court-appointed guardian, wanted to remind the court that the defendant was 15 at the time of the shooting and said he is not the same person that he was then.
“His life is salvageable, his life is rehabilitable,” McKelvy said while arguing that life without parole is not the appropriate sentence.
Amy Hopp, one of Crumbley’s defense attorneys, asked the judge to consider a term of years — which she said could potentially see him released by his late 70s — as opposed to life without parole.
“Even a term of years is a very, very lengthy sentence, and may very well be a life sentence. But what it does do is give Ethan the opportunity to demonstrate to everyone that he can be rehabilitated, that he is redeemable, that he can make amends and contribute in a positive way to society upon his release,” Hopp said.
Earlier this year, during a hearing to determine whether Crumbley could be eligible for life in prison without parole, Rowe highlighted evidence against the teen in which he displayed violence, including Crumbley saying he felt something “between good and pleasurable” when he tortured a baby bird.
“There is other disturbing evidence but it is clear to this court that the defendant had an obsession with violence before the shooting,” Rowe said.
Rowe questioned the possibility that Crumbley could be rehabilitated in jail.
“The evidence does not demonstrate to this court that he wants to change,” he said.
“The defendant continues to be obsessed with violence and could not stop his violence in jail,” Rowe added.
The teen’s parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley, were also charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter after allegedly failing to recognize warning signs about their son in the months before the shooting.
Both parents have pleaded not guilty and their trial is set to begin on Jan. 23.
During his plea hearing in October 2022, Crumbley admitted in court that he asked his father to buy him a specific gun and confirmed he gave his father money for the gun and that the semi-automatic handgun wasn’t kept in a locked safe.
Days before the shooting, a teacher allegedly saw Crumbley researching ammunition in class; school officials contacted his parents but they didn’t respond, according to prosecutors. His mother texted her son, writing, “lol, I’m not mad at you, you have to learn not to get caught,” according to prosecutors.
Hours before the shooting, according to prosecutors, a teacher saw a note on his desk that was “a drawing of a semi-automatic handgun pointing at the words, ‘The thoughts won’t stop, help me.’ In another section of the note was a drawing of a bullet with the following words above that bullet, ‘Blood everywhere.'”
Crumbley’s parents were called to the school over the incident, saying they’d get their son counseling but did not take him home.
(NEW YORK) — A group of high school students are being hailed as heroic Good Samaritans for their efforts to save a mother and her two young children.
The mom and her children, ages 2 and 3, were walking to their car in a school parking lot Tuesday afternoon in Layton, Utah, when they were run over by a car and became trapped underneath, Lt. Travis Lyman of the Layton Police Department told “Good Morning America.”
When police responded to the scene around three minutes after receiving a 911 call, a group of teenagers and school officials were already working to lift the car off the mom and her young kids, according to Lyman.
“Three minutes doesn’t sound like a long time, but certainly in a critical incident like that, when stress is high, that seems like a really long time,” Lyman said, adding of the students, “But they did rally and we’re proud of them for getting involved and helping the way they did.”
Surveillance video captured by the school, Layton Christian Academy, shows students rushing immediately to the scene to help.
Chris Crowder, the school’s CEO, told “GMA” that as soon as he saw that the mom and kids were trapped under the car, he ran to get even more students to help.
“I ran back in the building to grab as many students as possible,” Crowder said. “The car was just on top of them and squishing them. It was a small car, so there was very little clearance.”
Crowder said that the students helped to lift the car up on one side until it was high enough that a student was able to reach under the car and pull out the mom and one of her children, while the other child was able to escape from underneath the car on their own.
“They knew what to do, that they had to do something,” Crowder said of the students. “We’re very proud of them.”
Senior Airman Dominique Childress said he relied on his military training when he jumped into action to help after seeing the accident while picking up his children from the school. Childress described the students who ran to the scene to help as the “real heroes.”
“They’ve never had that [military] training, and so for each and every one of them to instinctively go out and do what they did in that traumatic experience is what makes them the real heroes of this story,” he told “GMA.” “Nobody ever told them that they were going to have to deal with something like this. They weren’t prepared for that, and they still did it.”
Crowder confirmed to “GMA” that the mom in the accident, whom he identified by her first name only, Bridgette, is an employee of the school.
She was transported to a hospital, where she underwent surgery and is being treated for non-life threatening injuries, according to Lyman.
Both of her children survived with only minor injuries, according to Lyman.
Lyman said the driver of the car, who has not been publicly identified, told police that she did not see the mom and kids in front of her car.
“One of the factors in this that the driver of the car said was a part of the cause for her not being able to see these people walking through the parking lot was the time of day and the fact that the afternoon sun was in her eyes and she couldn’t see,” Lyman said. “She was traveling pretty slowly through the parking lot but just didn’t see these people walking in front of her.”
Lyman said the incident has not yet been screened by the city attorney “to determine if any charges are appropriate.”
ABC News’ Kandis Mascall and Laryssa Demkiw contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Six more schools are under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education for reports of discrimination on their campuses, according to the agency.
Tulane University in Louisiana, Union College in New York, Cobb County School District in Georgia, University of Cincinnati in Ohio, Santa Monica College in California, and Montana State University in Montana have been added to the newly released list.
The DOE’s Office for Civil Rights released the list as part of the Biden administrations efforts to take action amid the “alarming nationwide rise in reports of antisemitism, anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and other forms of discrimination” on both college and K-12 school campuses since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, a statement said.
The Department of Education would not release what type of alleged discrimination the schools are being investigated for. However, at least three schools have released statements detailing the incidents.
A district spokesperson from Cobb County told ABC News they are being investigated for a single complaint regarding a reported “anti-Muslim incident.”
“All students in Cobb should feel safe and welcomed, we do not tolerate hate of any kind,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
A Tulane University spokesperson said that the incident of discrimination in question “took place at a rally organized by a group that is not recognized by Tulane.”
“The rally was deliberately staged on public property contiguous to our campus but over which we have no control,” the university said. “As a result of assaults against Tulane students and a Tulane police officer at the rally, three individuals unaffiliated with the university were arrested on a variety of charges, including hate crimes.”
The university did not make clear in its statement what kind of discrimination is specifically under investigation, however school officials say the university has increased campus security and has increased its training regarding antisemitism.
“Antisemitism and other forms of hate have no place at Tulane University,” the university said. “We are proud to be home to a large Jewish population where students can feel safe to express their cultural and religious identities as Jews.”
The statement continued, “We will fully comply with the OCR’s investigation and look forward to sharing with them the facts of this incident and our continued effort to support a learning environment that is free of harassment and discrimination based on shared ancestry or national origin.”
Union College also released a public statement, saying that it is being investigated over a claim of discrimination toward Jewish students. The complainant, according to Union College, alleged that the school failed to respond to incidents of harassment in October and November.
“We remain confident that our response to the very small number of reported incidents has been consistent with published policies and procedures, and with how we have responded to reports of alleged bias on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, religion and other protected statuses,” the statement said.
It continued, “The College has seen no violence, or threats of violence, on campus since the Oct. 7 terror attacks by Hamas on Israel.”
The University of Cincinnati, Santa Monica College, and Montana State University did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment on their respective DOE investigations.
These schools joins at least 9 other schools under investigation concerning Title VI, a law that bans discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in any institution or program that receives federal funding from the U.S. Department of Education.
U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona told ABC News in a past interview that there will likely be more investigations into schools and universities as incidents continue to pop up across the country.
(LAS VEGAS) — Three faculty members were killed and one faculty member was injured in a mass shooting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on Wednesday.
The suspect — who had applied for a college professorship at UNLV, but was not hired, according to sources — died at the scene following a firefight with police.
Here’s what we know about the victims:
Cha Jan Chang
Cha Jan Chang, 64, who was known as “Jerry,” was a UNLV business professor who lived in Henderson, Nevada, according to the Clark County coroner.
Chang was an assistant professor at UNLV from 2001 to 2007 and had been an associate professor since 2007.
He received both his masters and Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh.
“Dr. Chang was a longtime educator of management information systems, spending more than 20 years of his academic career teaching a generation of UNLV Lee Business School students,” UNLV President Keith Whitfield said in a statement on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Patricia Navarro Velez
Patricia Navarro Velez, 39, was an assistant professor in accounting at UNLV and lived in Las Vegas, according to the coroner.
She had a Ph.D. from the University of Central Florida.
“Navarro’s current research focuses on cybersecurity disclosures and assurance, internal control weakness disclosure, and data analytics,” her UNLV biography said.
“Dr. Navarro-Velez, an assistant professor of accounting, had devoted her career to educating the next generation of accountants,” Whitfield said. “She joined UNLV nearly 5 years ago as a professor of accounting, where she focused on teaching accounting information systems.”
Naoko Takemaru
Naoko Takemaru, 69, a Las Vegas resident, was an associate professor of Japanese studies at UNLV, according to the coroner and the university.
Takemaru oversaw the entire Japanese Studies Program and “received the William Morris Award for Excellence in Teaching from the College of Liberal Arts at UNLV,” according to her biography.
