Good morning. Welcome to Axios today. It's Monday, December 6th. I'm Erica Pandy,

Infernala Budu. Here's what you need to know today. New data could shed light on

the Omicron variant. Plus, the US reacts to Russian plans to invade Ukraine. But

first, today's one big thing. A school's responsibility and a mass shooting.

The investigation continues into last week's shooting at a Michigan High School.

Over the weekend, the parents of the 15-year-old suspect who shot and killed four of his classmates

and injured seven others were charged with involuntary manslaughter for their role in the deaths.

Now the school's culpability is in question. After two teachers raised imminent concerns about

the suspect's behavior, school administrators ordered the parents to get counseling for their son

within 48 hours. The school then let the boy go back to class where he began shooting.

So can the school be held legally responsible? Here to break down this case is Catherine J. Ross,

a law professor at George Washington University and an expert on student rights. Hey, Catherine.

Hi, Erica. Thank you for inviting me. So Catherine, in an ideal scenario, what could and

should the school have done differently? The thing that really shocked me was that the school

allowed Ethan to go back to class instead of keeping him in a place where he would be safe

and the school population would be safe. The guidance counselors signaled that they were very

concerned about his state of mind and they did that by telling his parents that Ethan had to see

a counselor within 48 hours and they backed that up with a threat that they would call protective

services if he wasn't in counseling by then. So they clearly were signaling their grave concern

and they were obligated to keep him segregated until they could make sure that he wasn't the threat.

So the DA has brought charges against the shooter's parents. Could we see charges

brought against the school by the DA? It would be either unheard of or almost unheard of for

...