[TICKING]
[WHOOSHING]
SCOTT PELLEY: Tonight, as US and Israeli strikes on Iran
continue, the most prominent leader of the Iranian opposition
tells us he believes the regime in Tehran is collapsing,
and he wants to lead the transition.
You have been out of the country for nearly 50 years.
Why would the people want you?
[TICKING]
BILL WHITAKER: When Judge John Coughenour
blocked President Trump's bid to end birthright citizenship,
he wasn't prepared for what happened next.
Death threats?
Oh, yes.
Oh, yes, dozens of them, dozens, if not hundreds.
BILL WHITAKER: He's one of 400 federal judges who
were targets of serious threats last year,
a 78% jump since 2021.
If we're not careful, we're gonna get a judge killed.
[TICKING]
[SIREN WAILING]
SHARYN ALFONSI: Four years ago, a gunman
opened fire at Oxford High School, about 40 miles north
of Detroit.
PARENT (ON PHONE): My son is texting me and saying,
they're shooting at him.
911 OPERATOR (ON PHONE): OK, ma'am, I'm going to let--
SHARYN ALFONSI: He was sentenced to life in prison,
but prosecutors argued he wasn't the only one to blame.
Do you think his parents failed him?
Yes.
This kid was asking for help at every level,
and he didn't get it.
And he did something horrible.
[TICKING]
I'm Lesley Stahl.
I'm Scott Pelley.
I'm Bill Whitaker.
I'm Anderson Cooper.
I'm Sharyn Alfonsi.
I'm Cecilia Vega.
I'm Jon Wertheim.
Those stories and in our last minute,
a great poet with prose on being an American, tonight on 60
Minutes.
[TICKING]
The United States and Israel conducted a second day
of strikes on targets across Iran.
Iran's Supreme Leader has been killed.
Tehran has retaliated with missile attacks
on Israel, neighboring countries, and US military bases
in the region.
At least three American service members have been killed.
Scott Pelley is in Paris, following events, including
what could be next for Iran.
Tonight, the most prominent member of the Iranian opposition
says he believes the Iranian regime is collapsing
and he would like to lead a transition that
makes Iran safe for the world.
65-year-old Reza Pahlavi is the son of the former king,
or Shah of Iran, who was deposed in 1979 by revolutionaries
and hardline Islamic clerics.
In that year of revolution, Pahlavi
was 18 years old and living in Lubbock, Texas,
where the US Air Force was training
him to be a fighter pilot.
He was never able to go home.
He has lived in exile 47 years, mostly in the United States.
But tonight he's in Paris, where we asked him
if he wants to be king, what Iran's policy should
be toward Israel and nuclear weapons.
We started our interview with the news
that the Supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini,
had been killed in the opening hours of the war.
It is definitely a sort of earth-shattering event
in the sense that when people identify the entire monstrosity
of the regime that is depicted ultimately by the chief monster
of these monsters, when he's gone,
the minute such a personality disappears, it's like elation.
It was like, oh my God, it has finally occurred.
Maybe this is it, this is our chance now.
You call him a monster.
What do you mean?
Well, I mean, ever since this regime has taken over,
how many Iranians' lives have been lost?
I don't think you can have an example
of such level of atrocity ever in the history of Iran,
or at least contemporary Iran, that
has occurred under this regime.
And this is all because of Ali Khomeini's insistence
and persistence to keep himself and his mafia
regime in power at the expense of the Iranian people.
I don't know how else can you depict
it, other than being true monsters
in the real sense of the word.
[CROWD YELLING]
SCOTT PELLEY: This past January, Iranians
poured into the streets.
Pahlavi urged them on, and hundreds of thousands marched.
The regime gunned down an estimated 20,000 citizens.
The massacre was a prelude to war.
This is video overnight, after the announcement
of the death of the Ayatollah in the city of Isfahan.
What does that mean to you?
REZA PAHLAVI: That means that, finally, we
are ready to go back to the streets,
even though I've cautioned them that for now, you better
take care of your own safety and stay at home.
The time will come to go back out on the streets.
But then again, you see that despite that, people still
are brave enough to say, to hell with it.
Because to us, it's liberation.
To us, it's like a humanitarian intervention
to protect lives that could otherwise
be continued to be lost.
It gives the Iranian people a real opportunity now,
when they see the end of this regime, that was always bound
to collapse, whether there was an intervention or not.
I want to make sure your audience understand
that, that we were prepared to fight the fight.
There was too much blood between us and this regime.
We were committed to fight, regardless
of outside intervention.
They're thanking President Trump for actually standing
on his word and acting upon his word.
Do you actually believe this regime could
fall after almost 50 years?
Of course.
SCOTT PELLEY: Prince Reza Pahlavi
told us he wants to lead Iran in a transition to democracy.
You don't want to be king?
I'm not running for office.
I'm not.
Are you saying in this interview
that you wouldn't lead Iran?
That's a different thing.
They trust me as the transitional leader, not as
the future king or future president or future whatever.
I'm totally focused on my mission
in life, which is, let me bring the country to a point
that they can make that free choice.
That will be enough for me, having
said mission accomplished.
You imagine peace with Israel?
Of course.
In modern history, Iran actually gave refuge
to Jews that were escaping the Nazis during the Second World
War, giving them refuge and sanctuary in Iran.
The strategic importance of having a partnership with Israel
is critical.
What are the principles on which
you would build a new Iran?
I think what today unites us are four core principles that I
think is the subject of how we can work together
towards that end.
Number one is Iran's territorial integrity.
Number two is the clear separation
of religion from state, which is a prerequisite to democracy.
And we paid the price understanding
what it means to live under a religious dictatorship.
Number three is, of course, equality
of all citizens under the law and individual liberties.
And most importantly, the process, a democratic process
to allow the people to elect and decide what
their future system of governance should be.
What would happen to the nuclear weapons program?
I think it should be totally dismantled.
I don't think Iran has any need to pursue a military weaponizing
of the nuclear program.
SCOTT PELLEY: Pahlavi's father was the last king.
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was close to the United States,
but he brutally suppressed opposition and showered friends
with lavish wealth.
In 1979, he left Iran amid rising political tension,
and a hardline cleric, Ayatollah Khomeini,
returned from exile to lead a revolution.
Iranians blamed the US for supporting the King,
and revolutionaries overran the US embassy in Tehran,
and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
Your father's reign is remembered for repression
and opulent wealth.
And I wonder why you believe the people would welcome you now?
Well, that's perhaps one narrative.
But when you look at a lot of people who were, at the time,
living that era, they were telling me, you know what?
We recognize where we were and where we are now.
And today we want to be with you.
We support you.
We back you.
And there were people who were in those so-called prisons
that were notorious or repressive or whatever you call,
they were imprisoned under the previous regime.
People were killed in your father's regime.
Look, look, my father left Iran
voluntarily to avoid bloodshed.
And he said-- he said, I'm a king.
A king doesn't build his throne on the blood of his own people.
If the nation today wants me out, I would leave.
I will not turn my guns on them.
You have been out of the country for nearly 50 years.
Why would the people want you?
If they thought that was an issue,
I don't think they would be calling my name by the millions
on the streets of Iran.
I think that part of the reason people trust me only is
because they cannot associate me in any way or form
to the revolution, or to be part of this regime.
The very same people who today are
in the streets, all the young kids that
are getting shot and massacred by this regime,
are a generation that turns to their parents and tell them,
what the hell were you thinking?
What was that madness to think that this Khomeini character is
going to be our solution and our path to freedom?
And look at where we are now.
But from the day I left, I never left Iran.
Iran had been on my mind every single year of my life,
every single day.
When I wake up in the morning, the first thing
that's in my mind is Iran.
SCOTT PELLEY: Pahlavi told us he is
in touch with the Trump administration
and members of Congress.
What is your message to President Trump?
My message to President Trump is
that I'm here to echo and join millions
of my compatriots inside and outside of Iran
to thank him for having done and having the courage to do what
is not easy, but intervene.
And he will go down in the annals of Iranian history
as the most celebrated foreign leader
that changed the ball game and changed the world as a result.
In January, President Trump said this about you, quote,
"He seems very nice, but I don't know how he'd
play within his own country.
I don't know whether or not his country
would accept his leadership.
And certainly if they would that would be fine with me."
You don't seem to have President Trump's wholehearted support.
Well, first of all, I don't think
that somebody in my position will ever
expect to have an official endorsement
of a foreign government or a foreign leader.
What I do know now is that millions of Iranians inside Iran
and outside of Iran are calling my name.
They recognize in me the person uniquely placed
to play a role of transitional leadership,
not running for office because that's not what I'm doing,
but to be a bridge to that destiny.
[WHOOSHING]
SCOTT PELLEY: Unrest has been building for months.
Last June, US and Israeli forces attacked
Iran's nuclear facilities.
And in 2022, one of the largest uprisings in the nearly 50-year
history of the regime erupted.
Iran's morality police arrested a 22-year-old woman,
accusing her of failing to cover her hair.
She was killed in custody.
And crowds moved into the streets
to demand an end to the regime.
Security forces killed more than 500, arrested 22,000,
and blacked out the internet.
Much of the population has been seething right through today.
When you see the courage on the streets
that we're witnessing now, I wonder how that moves you?
I think it's the ultimate definition of heroism.
Do you remember that lone Chinese student
in Tiananmen Square standing in front of that tank?
I remember that image.
Let me give you another visual that has been
going viral on the cyberspace--
that firefighter who was carrying a wounded person that
was shot on the streets just a few weeks ago,
and they shot him to death.
That image, exemplify that.
It's a tremendous thing to witness.
Pahlavi told us there are units in the military and police who
have signaled to him that they would turn
on the hardline government.
He says many, but not all troops,
could be given amnesty in a process
of national reconciliation.
And in fact, it would be a clear indication that this is
the time for them to make a decision--
do you want to join this time with the people,
or do you want to stand with the sinking ship?
It's possible that this interview will penetrate
the internet blackout.
And I wonder what you say to the Iranian people?
Have faith in yourselves.
You are a nation with an ancient civilization.
I know how proud you are of your heritage,
how important Iran is to all of them.
And I always said to them, I say you know what?
I know you're always hoping for a better future.
What I would like you to start doing,
and I've started to answer my call, is instead of hoping,
start believing that it can be done.
[TICKING]
ANNOUNCER: Five decades of covering Iran.
He calls you, Imam-- forgive me, his words, not mine,
"a lunatic."
INTERPRETER: You are like a CIA investigator.
MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD: [SPEAKING PERSIAN]
ANNOUNCER: Go inside the 60 Minutes archive
at 60minutesovertime.com.
JOURNALIST (ON FILM): --rampage through the streets.
When the Supreme Court recently struck down
President Trump's tariffs, he lashed out
at two justices he had nominated,
calling them fools and lapdogs.
The president has frequently railed against judges
when they rule against him.
What often happens next is a barrage
of violent threats from his followers against those judges.
We spoke with 26 federal judges, 9 Democratic appointees,
17 Republican, both sitting and retired.
The sitting judges told us they feel under siege.
Most would not appear on camera, fearful for their safety.
Judge John Coughenour, appointed by Ronald Reagan,
is one of the few who would.
He blocked President Trump's bid to end birthright citizenship.
He wasn't prepared for what happened next.
My wife and I are at home and the doorbell rings.
And I go to the door.
And there's, I think, five sheriff's deputies there
with long rifles.
And they show up with guns drawn?
Oh, yeah, yes, yes, long guns, very intimidating guns.
And they said to me, sir, could we see your wife?
And I said, whatever for?
And they said, well, sir, we've had a report
that you've murdered your wife.
BILL WHITAKER: It was a cruel hoax.
The next day-- a bomb threat.
For John Coughenour, a federal district court
judge in Washington State, it didn't end there.
JOHN COUGHENOUR: There was a Congressman
that had a Wanted poster.
It said "WANTED" in big letters at the top and then a picture
of several of us.
It said everything except dead or alive.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER ON PA]
BILL WHITAKER: His trouble started when President Trump
signed an executive order to end the 14th Amendment's guarantee
of citizenship for infants born on US soil to non-citizens.
Judge Coughenour ruled it, quote,
"blatantly unconstitutional."
The threats poured in.
Some of it was very, very ugly and very threatening.
Death threats?
Oh, yes.
Oh, yes, dozens of them, dozens, if not hundreds.
BILL WHITAKER: Judge Coughenour told
us threats come with the turf.
He has sentenced an Al-Qaida bomber and Montana militia
members and needed round-the-clock protection.
But he said he'd never had as many death
threats as with the birthright citizenship case.
I've been at this for 44 years.
I have never encountered the hostility
toward the judiciary that has existed
in this country in the last year.
And I don't think it's because we're making bad decisions.
I think it's because there are people
who think that they can make a lot of political hay
out of criticizing the federal judiciary.
And also, we cannot allow a handful of Communist,
radical left judges to obstruct the enforcement of our laws
and assume the duties that belong solely to the President
of the United States.
BILL WHITAKER: When President Trump lost a battle in court
to deport migrants, he called the judge a "lunatic."
When immigration crackdowns were ruled illegal,
he called the judges "monsters."
It's incendiary comments like that
that have provoked a torrent of death threats.
Our reporting found 100s of threats were left
on judges' voicemails, this one after a judge ruled
the president had violated the First Amendment.
CALLER 1 (ON PHONE): I hope your whole family and everybody
you love is raped in front of you and has their heads cut off.
BILL WHITAKER: And this one, after a judge
ruled the president couldn't cut certain government benefits.
CALLER 2 (ON PHONE): And I wish somebody would
[BLEEP] assassinate your ass.
BILL WHITAKER: It's a volcano of vitriol.
CALLER 2 (ON PHONE): I double dare
you to try to put charges on Donald J. Trump,
you son of a bitch.
BILL WHITAKER: It falls to the US Marshals
to pinpoint the verbal threats that might
lead to physical violence.
Judges told us the Marshals are overwhelmed.
Last year, 400 federal judges were
targets of serious threats, a 78% jump in four years.
In very plain English, if we're not careful,
we're going to get a judge killed.
It's just that stark.
It's that serious?
It's that serious.
BILL WHITAKER: Judge John Jones is a retired federal judge
from Pennsylvania, a George W. Bush appointee.
He and 55 other retired judges were so concerned,
they formed a bipartisan group to lobby the White House
to stop demonizing judges.
This is such a toxic environment
where people are taking up arms and can identify
where a judge lives, can strikeout against that judge
or the judge's family members.
So when President Trump attacks judges as "rogue,
deranged, corrupt," what do you think he's doing and why?
I think that he's attempting to delegitimize
the federal courts.
Why would he do that?
What's the benefit to him?
It's a presidency sort of on steroids.
And you have a very dormant, I think,
United States Congress and a president
who means to really say what the law is.
Well, civics taught me that Congress
makes the law and the president faithfully executes
the laws of the country.
We've turned that on its head right now.
OK, we'll sign right here, right?
BILL WHITAKER: Judge Jones told us
this White House is testing the bounds of presidential power.
PROTESTERS: ICE out!
BILL WHITAKER: Today, the Trump administration
is facing 600 lawsuits contesting its agenda,
from immigration to job cuts.
Judges are caught squarely in the crossfire.
As a judge who has taken an oath to uphold the Constitution
and defend the rule of law, I have a duty to call this out.
That's why I'm talking to you.
BILL WHITAKER: Judge Esther Salas
is a federal district court judge in New Jersey.
A Barack Obama appointee, she has become a leading voice
against the personal attacks on judges, which has made her
the target of death threats.
She knows the stakes.
In 2020, a failed litigant came to her front door,
shot her son Daniel dead and wounded her husband, Mark.
It was not driven by politics, but she
fears today's inflammatory rhetoric
makes such horrors more likely.
I'm more concerned right now than I
was after my only child was murdered.
Why?
Because I think that the attacks against the judiciary
are only getting worse.
What I'm seeing now is far different than what
I've seen in the past.
This is coming from our national leader on down.
BILL WHITAKER: Judge Salas told us vilifying judges
is eroding trust in the courts.
If you disagree with a ruling that we make, appeal us.
If you disagree with a sentence we render, appeal us.
The answer is not to dehumanize us.
And that has been, I think, the active agenda as of late.
I feel like sometimes our political leaders
are playing Russian roulette with our lives.
Do you think the rhetoric emboldens people?
I do.
I think it's dangerous.
BILL WHITAKER: In a statement, the White House said,
"As a survivor of two assassination attempts,
no one understands the dangers of political violence more than
President Trump."
It went on to accuse the judiciary of "brazen defiance"
with its "unlawful rulings."
These activist judges--
BILL WHITAKER: Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche
called it a war.
We are routinely getting stays and getting reversals
because of local judges just not following the law, full stop.
And it's the same judges-- or not the same judges--
but there's a group of judges that are repeat players.
And that's obviously not by happenstance.
That's intentional.
And it's a war, man.
BILL WHITAKER: Todd Blanche declined our request
for an interview.
In a statement to us, he said some judges continue to issue
"overbroad and even unreasoned injunctions,"
but adding "threats and intimidation of federal
officials is unlawful."
Judge John Coughenour told us the Constitution
is a judge's north star.
So to someone who says that you are a political agent in trying
to thwart the goals of the president, you would say?
I would say you don't understand what we do.
We apply the Constitution.
For the last 250 years in this country,
it's been the judges that say this is either constitutional
or it isn't.
If nobody's going to make that decision and nobody's going
to enforce the Constitution, it becomes like the Constitution
of Russia.
BILL WHITAKER: The threats aren't just
coming from the right.
In 2020, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warned that
Supreme Court justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh
would quote, "Pay the price for restricting abortion."
He later apologized.
In 2022, a would-be assassin was arrested
for trying to kill Justice Kavanaugh at his home.
But Judge Jones, a Republican appointee,
told us the violent language of the right has no match.
The national rhetoric from both sides
has probably gotten worse over time.
However, I would not concede that the Democratic Party
or that Democratic officeholders have conducted themselves
in any way that's similar to what this administration is
doing with respect to the federal judiciary.
There's simply no evidence of that.
RON ZAYAS: And when you look at the database,
it's the names and addresses of hundreds of elected officials
and judges.
BILL WHITAKER: Ron Zayas is the CEO
of Ironwall, a company that scrubs judges' personal data
from the web.
So here's another threat that we have toward a judge.
BILL WHITAKER: Zayas told us, in 14 years,
he has never seen as many violent threats as today.
If you broadcast that message to a million people,
you just need one to act on it.
And that's the terrifying part that judges
are having to deal with today.
BILL WHITAKER: Zayas also combs through the dark web--
Look at the gallows, my god.
RON ZAYAS: Yes.
BILL WHITAKER: --a criminal haven
on the internet where anonymous threat actors try
to cause real-world harm.
These days, Zayas is worried about a new type of threat.
The threat seems to be, you ruled against me,
and I want to kill you.
Now, the kind of threats we're seeing,
there's a whole other sphere of saying,
I want to influence what you do.
It's mob mentality.
They want to threaten you so that you
make the right decision.
BILL WHITAKER: The Marshals are also
investigating a striking new form of intimidation--
hundreds of unsolicited pizzas sent
to judges and their children across the country,
an innocuous delivery with an ominous message.
We know where you live.
We know where your children live.
And do you want to end up like Judge Salas' son?
BILL WHITAKER: At least 20 were sent
to homes in the name of Judge Salas' late son.
The order form had my murdered son's name on it.
They're weaponizing my baby boy.
They're weaponizing Daniel's name to inflict fear on judges.
I know that's shocking, but it must be so, so painful.
Oh!
You know, that one took me.
And you add to that, for flavor, that I have yet
to see the attorney general or the deputy attorney general
stand at a podium and denounce these forms of intimidation.
BILL WHITAKER: Attorney General Pam Bondi also
declined our request for an interview.
Judge Salas, among many others, told us the rule of law
is at stake.
I sit here as Daniel's mom.
I sit here as a woman who lost her only child.
Mark and I have been to hell and back.
And when I see that kind of irresponsible behavior coming
from our political leaders and people in power, it makes me sad
and it makes me very worried.
Because I worry for our democracy, I really do.
[TICKING]
Since the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado,
there have been 84 mass shootings at schools
across the United States.
Each tragedy is uniquely horrific,
but the response from lawmakers has become
frustratingly predictable--
condolences, partisan rhetoric, and ultimately, inaction,
which is why we took note of how some prosecutors are pursuing
these cases.
They're not just putting the gunman behind bars.
They're starting to hold the shooter's parents responsible.
For the past two weeks, the father of an accused high school
mass shooter has been on trial in Barrow County, Georgia.
Prosecutors there argue that he ignored red flags about his son
before the teen shot up Apalachee High in 2024,
a tragedy that left four dead.
It's not the first time the parent has been put on trial.
Tonight, we'll look at the precedent-setting case out
of Oxford, Michigan, and ask whether holding parents
accountable is enough to break the cycle of school shooting
violence.
[SIREN WAILING]
OFFICER (ON RADIO): We have an active shooter incident.
SHARYN ALFONSI: Four years ago, on a cold November day,
a gunman opened fire at Oxford High School, about 40 miles
north of Detroit.
PARENT (ON PHONE): My son is texting me and saying
they're shooting at him.
911 OPERATOR (ON PHONE): OK, ma'am, I'm gonna let you go.
SHARYN ALFONSI: A 15-year-old student walked the halls armed
with a 9-millimeter handgun, killing four schoolmates,
among them, 16-year-old Tate Myre,
a star athlete and student mentor, and 14-year-old Hana St.
Juliana, just three months into her freshman year.
Hana was a bright light.
Making people laugh is, I think, what
most people remember about her, her smile and her laugh.
BUCK MYRE: Tate had a crazy, crazy, awesome zest for life.
He was an incredible soul.
This hit the community hard.
SHARYN ALFONSI: Buck Myre and Steve St. Juliana
now find themselves on a growing list
of families whose children have been killed in school shootings.
How are we doing, as a country, moving towards this
not happening again?
We're not moving in that direction.
Yeah, we're going backwards at the moment.
Yep.
Why do you say that?
Changes that have been made at a legislative level--
trying to add more mental health support, more gun control--
it's all being reversed.
We don't seem to be wanting to learn from them, you know?
I feel like we need to get in prevention.
STUDENT 1: Go!
STUDENT 2: [CRIES]
SHARYN ALFONSI: Prevention might have protected Oxford High
students from this moment.
STUDENT 3: Go.
SHARYN ALFONSI: There were red flags for months.
Prosecutors say the gunman, Ethan Crumbley,
had texted his mother on multiple occasions
that he saw demons in the family home.
Three months before the shooting,
he assured a friend he was just kidding
after he texted that it's time to shoot up the school.
And 24 hours before the attack, his troubling conduct escalated.
According to prosecutors and court testimony,
here's what happened.
A teacher emailed administrators that she
saw the sophomore looking at different bullets
online in class.
A school administrator left a voicemail for the boy's mother.
She didn't respond, but later texted her son, "LOL,
I'm not mad.
You have to learn not to get caught."
The next morning, just hours before the shooting,
another teacher alerted administrators
that the teen's math worksheet had drawings
of a gun, a bullet, and a person bleeding, along with the words,
"The thoughts won't stop.
Help me.
Blood everywhere."
He was taken to a guidance counselor's office
and his parents were called in.
The counselor testified that he recommended therapy
and suggested the Crumbleys take their son home,
but they refused, citing work.
The meeting lasted just 12 minutes.
They left and he went back to class.
His backpack was never checked.
Two hours later, surveillance video shows the 15-year-old
walked into the bathroom, pulled a gun out of that backpack,
entered the hallway, and started shooting.
Police found his journal on the bathroom floor,
detailing his desire and plan to shoot up his classmates.
Later, investigators learned that just three days before
the attack, his mother had taken him to a shooting range with
that 9-millimeter handgun, which his father had purchased for him
as an early Christmas present.
Do you think his parents failed him?
Yes, I think there was plenty of red flags
there for them to be aware that he was in crisis.
And their answer to that was to go buy him a gun
and take him shooting, which, there's
nothing wrong with that activity in and of itself.
But when that's your answer to a child in crisis,
that's a problem.
I'll never forgive him.
But this kid was asking for help at every level,
and he didn't get it.
And he did something horrible.
JUDGE: Is it your own choice to plead guilty?
Yes, sir.
SHARYN ALFONSI: He pled guilty to all charges
and was sentenced to life in prison.
But prosecutors argued he wasn't the only one to blame.
His parents were each convicted of four counts
of involuntary manslaughter for failing to secure the gun
and ignoring the warning signs of their son's mental health
crisis.
I believe that the following sentences would be in the best
interest of justice--
SHARYN ALFONSI: They were sentenced to at least 10 years
in prison.
It is the first time that parents anywhere in the country
have been held criminally responsible for a mass school
shooting committed by their child.
Our society refuses to take significant action
to protect our children.
So one of the only places that we can put this back onto
are the parents.
What's really unfortunate here is,
when you want to think about this shooting
and accountability, only the shooter
and the parents have been held accountable.
There's been no accountability at the school.
Should the school bear some responsibility?
Absolutely.
I mean, they're in the business of kids.
I mean, the kid was in a counseling office.
He was obviously in crisis.
He basically already had a gun in his hand.
And the counseling office fumbled it.
SHARYN ALFONSI: Victims' lawsuits
against school officials and the district have been dismissed,
citing Michigan's government immunity laws,
which protect public entities and their employees
from being sued.
Immunity is driving inaction.
Yeah.
The law enforcement says, well, we
don't want to waste our time doing the investigation
because they've got immunity.
Prosecutors are the same way.
They don't want to prosecute or try
to prosecute because, well, they're
coming up against immunity.
So why bother?
STEVE ST. JULIANA: So why bother?
And that's where we've gone.
I mean, we've fought consistently just
to have this investigation done.
I imagine that there will be people
who say the schools are already stretched thin.
They don't have the ability to do much
with a kid who's in trouble.
We can't let them off the hook.
This was preventable.
SHARYN ALFONSI: There are no national standards
after a school shooting, no federal mandates for state
reviews or investigations.
Typically, the FBI is only required
to investigate if it's considered an act of terror
or a hate crime.
After months of pressure from the community,
the Oxford School Board hired a private security
firm called Guidepost to conduct an independent investigation.
But that path was full of roadblocks.
Guidepost doesn't have the legal authority to compel testimony.
So of the 161 people they asked to interview,
Guidepost reported that approximately 70
refused or would not respond, including two school employees
who met with the shooter hours before the incident.
The district told us that many staff members had
given depositions in court proceedings,
but according to Guidepost, those interviews
didn't fully address all of their questions.
Guidepost concluded that teachers at Oxford High
acted appropriately by immediately raising concerns.
Guidepost investigators faulted the school for not following
established "threat assessment" protocols,
writing "this tragedy was avoidable."
The Michigan Attorney General's Office
says it is now investigating.
When a mass shooting occurs--
SHARYN ALFONSI: James Densley and Jillian Peterson
are professors of Criminology and founders of the Violence
Prevention Project, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based nonprofit that
studies mass shootings.
You think about all the things that were learned after 9/11,
and how that created an entire infrastructure and an apparatus
around dealing with terrorism, we don't see that same type
of urgency with the mass shooting problem.
Instead, we get thoughts and prayers.
We get a situation where we pit off imperfect solutions
against each other because no one can agree on anything.
And then that creates a situation
where there's no action.
So what is missing is that definitive action
where we can create a template that everybody else then
follows suit.
One of the guys we interviewed--
SHARYN ALFONSI: Densley and Peterson
have spent the last 10 years researching hundreds
of mass shootings, interviewing those
who knew the gunmen, and also the shooters themselves,
hoping to better understand their pathways to violence
and how to stop them.
What's the pattern that emerged from the data?
We saw an early childhood with a lot
of pretty significant violence or neglect, domestic violence
in the home, that laid the foundation.
Did you ever say to any of these mass shooters,
could somebody have stopped you?
That was one of the questions I asked every time-- is there
anyone or anything that could have stopped you?
And every person we talked to said yes.
One of them even said, I think anyone could have stopped me.
[SIRENS WAILING]
SHARYN ALFONSI: Their research shows
that over 90% of all school mass shooters broadcast their plans
online--
[STUDENTS SCREAMING]
--or in person before they commit the atrocity.
Investigators say the gunman in Parkland, Florida--
Shooter in the window!
SHARYN ALFONSI: --Uvalde, Texas--
[SIRENS WAILING]
--and Apalachee High in Winder, Georgia,
all told people about their intent before the attacks.
They're feeling hopeless and they feel isolated,
and they're looking for that notoriety.
They want to be seen, no matter how dysfunctionally.
No matter how dysfunctionally.
It's better than not being seen.
Often you see, after a school shooting, more metal detectors,
clear backpacks, and drills.
If a school is given this kind of emergency resources
to make their kids safer, is that the best use of them?
It's not the best use of them.
And all of that security ends up being kind of theatrical.
It makes you feel better, maybe.
But if a student is the perpetrator,
it doesn't do anything.
And so you're better off spending resources
on things like teams that communicate
with each other, school-based mental health, crisis
intervention, suicide prevention.
And the data bears that out?
The data over and over again bears that out.
The best thing we can do to prevent violence
is not to push kids out, it's to actually pull them in.
They've probably been--
SHARYN ALFONSI: The researchers are
part of a pilot program in Minnesota designed
to teach school staff how to identify kids in crisis
and wrap them up with services.
In 2022, after Uvalde--
The motion to concur with--
SHARYN ALFONSI: --Congress passed a bipartisan bill
that included $1 billion in grants for mental health
services at schools.
But last April, the majority of that funding was discontinued.
The Department of Education explained
the programs conflicted with the administration's priorities.
In December, it awarded $208 million
for credentialed school mental health providers,
a fraction of the original funding.
Something has to change.
I mean, gun violence is the number-one killer
of our children in America.
And our society currently seems to have its head in the ground,
refusing to acknowledge this, just saying,
oh, it's the way it is.
No, that's a ridiculous answer.
This is not something that is insurmountable.
We can make great strides to prevent this from happening
again, we just aren't.
[TICKING]
ANNOUNCER: The last minute of 60 Minutes
is sponsored by UnitedHealthcare.
Coverage you can count on for your whole life ahead.
Six poets have read at a US presidential inauguration,
including Robert Frost and Maya Angelou.
Amanda Gorman was 22 when she read her poem "The Hill We
Climb" at Joe Biden's inauguration.
As the nation celebrates 250 years of independence,
we asked Gorman, what does it mean to be an American?
When I think about what it means to be an American,
I truly believe it's more than a pride we inherit.
It's the past we step into and how we repair it,
meaning that being an American is more than just remembering
our history.
It's how we heal it.
It's how we recover.
It's how we hold ourselves accountable to being
the best that we can be.
Part of my American story is being
someone who's descended from slaves,
and how that informs my own Americanhood is it teaches me
that freedom, equity, liberty are not just things
we can take for granted.
They must be fought for, protected, and cherished.
And so my rights and my role and responsibility as an American
is both to love my own freedom, but to love and defend it
for other people as well.
It's to remember yesterday and always walk pridefully
into tomorrow.
I'm Jon Wertheim.
We'll be back next week with another edition of 60 Minutes.
[TICKING]