Michigan education board wants state to fund new Oxford shooting investigation
Michigan’s State Board of Education is urging the state Legislature to mandate and fund an independent investigation into the Oxford High School shooting, and any similar cases going forward. The Michigan State Board of Education has passed a resolution urging the state Legislature to mandate and fund an independent investigation into the Oxford High School shooting, and any similar cases going forward. The resolution was passed following a hearing from the parents of the four students murdered by the shooter, who have formed a group called The Families For Change. The board is recommending an independent review of multiple aspects of the shooting, including relevant events before, during, and after the tragedy. The community was unsatisfied with the investigation's progress and the lack of information they received from the district, even after the third-party investigative report was released last year. The report stated that while the school properly executed its security protocols at the time of the tragedy, more could have been done beforehand to minimize or prevent the damage. However, it also claimed that the district did not have sufficient guidelines in place for proper threat assessment, which could have potentially identified the shooter as a threat before the actual shooting. The Oakland County Prosecutor's Office has ruled that no school staff or officials in connection with the shooting are accountable for the deaths due to governmental immunity.
Publicados : 2 semanas atrás por Cassidy Johncox no General
OXFORD, Mich. – Michigan’s State Board of Education is urging the state Legislature to mandate and fund an independent investigation into the Oxford High School shooting, and any similar cases going forward.
The state education board passed a resolution on Tuesday, June 11 calling on Michigan lawmakers to require and pay for third-party investigations "in any circumstance where a student has died or multiple students die, as a result of a safety-related event,” the resolution reads. Specifically, the board is recommending an independent investigation into multiple aspects of the Nov. 30, 2021, Oxford shooting.
“[T]he State Board of Education calls upon the Michigan Legislature to mandate and fund a comprehensive, independent review of the Oxford killings, including but not limited to relevant events before, during, and after the tragedy, including emergency operation plans (EOP), within the school, district, community, and emergency response system,” the resolution reads.
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The board’s vote came a few weeks after its members heard from the parents of the four students murdered by the Oxford shooter. The parents have formed a group called The Families For Change, through which they’re working with local and state officials in hopes of driving “lasting change and true accountability” after the shooting, the group said earlier this year.
When addressing the State Board of Education in May, the parents asked for a “comprehensive investigation” into the shooting and a “mandatory threat assessment as part of schools’ emergency operation plans,” according to the board’s resolution.
The request from the parents, and now from the board, comes after the completion of independent investigation sanctioned by the Oxford school district. The community, however, was not satisfied with how long it took for the investigation to get underway, nor with the results.
The state education board itself said the independent investigation, handled by Guidepost Solutions, “left unanswered questions” for the Oxford community.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel offered on at least three occasions to independently investigate the Oxford shooting. The Oxford Community Schools district rejected those offers.
After the parents of the Oxford shooter were convicted earlier this year, The Families For Change requested the immediate removal of local school board members who were “leading the district” at the time of the shooting. The group said it wants an investigation into the school district itself, as well.
“The Oxford community deserves board members it can trust to keep its children safe and move it forward,” the group said.
The parents’ anger toward the district isn’t uncommon: Many Oxford community members expressed frustration over the lack of information they got from the district about what happened -- even after the third-party investigative report was released last year. At a board meeting in November 2023, parents argued the district still hadn’t issued any apologies or addressed certain concerns, like why some staff hadn’t been fired for their roles in the shooting.
The 572-page investigative report from Guidepost said that while the school properly executed its security protocols at the time of the shooting, more could have been done beforehand to minimize or prevent the damage. The report also claimed the district did not have sufficient guidelines in place for proper threat assessment, which could have potentially identified the shooter as a threat before the actual shooting.
School staff and officials who interacted with the shooter prior to the shooting were also assigned some responsibility in the third-party report. However, investigators said only a fraction of school employees they sought to speak with actually agreed to be interviewed and help with the investigation. Other employees reportedly obtained lawyers and refused to provide information.
When the report was released in October last year, the district said it needed to review the details, and that more information would be forthcoming.
Parents of the victims maintained that everyone who had an opportunity to do more to prevent the shooting, especially school staff, should be held accountable for their children’s deaths. The Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office previously said that it wouldn’t be prosecuting school staff or officials in connection with the shooting due to governmental immunity.
The district and some of those school staff members, however, are at the center of a federal lawsuit brought by the victims’ families.
Read the full resolution from Michigan’s State Board of Education, which was passed on June 11, below.
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