Could others be charged, liable in Michigan school shooting?

A prosecutor continues to criticize the decision to keep a teenager in a Michigan school before a shooting that killed four students last week, raising questions about whether staff and the school district will face liability — criminal or civil — in the tragedy.

“We should all be looking at the events that led up to that horrific event,” Karen McDonald told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “And as a community, as a school, as a nation talk about what we could have done different so that didn’t happen. And in this case a lot could have been done different.”

Ethan Crumbley, 15, is charged with shooting fellow students at Oxford High School after a meeting with counselors and his parents. A teacher was troubled by a drawing of a gun, a bullet and a person who appeared to have been shot, along with messages stating “My life is useless” and “The world is dead,” investigators said.

A look at some of the issues:

COULD SCHOOL STAFF FACE CHARGES?

The prosecutor has sharpened her comments about the school. Two days after the Nov. 30 shooting, she said she hadn’t seen any “criminal culpability” by staff and was reluctant to blame anyone besides Crumbley and his parents.

But her tone was different Monday.

“That’s an investigative process that I’ll leave to law enforcement. I can tell you that there is outrage in the community,” said McDonald, questioning why Crumbley’s parents were allowed to make the ultimate decision to keep him in school that day.

Oxford Superintendent Tim Throne said counselors met with the boy and his parents on the day of the shooting. They concluded he was not a risk to himself or others, according to Throne, but told James and Jennifer Crumbley to get him outside counseling within 48 hours or they would call child welfare officials.

The Crumbleys “flatly refused” to take their son home, said Throne, who plans a separate investigation of what happened that day.

“I see a lot of negligence, but I don’t foresee charges against anyone in the school,” said David Steingold, a Detroit-area defense attorney. “You would have to show specific intent. No one on the staff intended to commit a crime.”

As for others, the gun was legally sold by a local dealer to James Crumbley, according to investigators. The gun manufacturing industry is protected from civil lawsuits for its products, according to the Giffords Law Center, which tracks gun issues.