Michigan Board of Education wants state to fund new investigation into Oxford shooting

Lina Portman3 weeks ago

0 3 minutes read

OXFORD, Michigan. – The Michigan State Board of Education is urging the state Legislature to order and fund an independent investigation into the Oxford High School shooting and any future similar cases.

The state Board of Education passed a resolution Tuesday, June 11, calling on Michigan lawmakers to require and fund third-party investigations “in all circumstances where a student dies or multiple students die, at the following a security event. indicates the resolution. Specifically, the council recommends an independent investigation into several aspects of the November 30, 2021 Oxford shooting.

“[T]The State Board of Education is calling on the Michigan Legislature to mandate and fund a comprehensive, independent review of the Oxford murders, including but not limited to relevant events before, during and after the tragedy, including emergency operations plans (EOPs), within the framework of the school, district, community and emergency response system,” the resolution states.

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The board's vote came weeks after its members heard from the parents of the four students murdered by the Oxford shooter. The parents formed a group called The Families For Change, through which they are working with local and state officials in hopes of bringing about “lasting change and real accountability” after the shootings, the group said earlier this year .

When addressing the State Board of Education in May, parents called for a “thorough investigation” into the shooting and a “mandatory threat assessment as part of schools' emergency operations plans,” according to the council resolution.

The request from parents, and now the school board, comes after the conclusion of an independent investigation sanctioned by the Oxford School District. The community, however, was not satisfied with the time it took for the investigation to begin, nor with the results.

The National Education Council itself said the independent investigation, carried out by Guidepost Solutions, “left unanswered questions” for the Oxford community.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has offered at least three times to independently investigate the Oxford shooting. The Oxford Community Schools district rejected those offers.

After the Oxford shooter's parents were convicted earlier this year, The Families For Change called for the immediate removal of local school board members who were “running the district” at the time of the shooting. The group said it also wants an investigation into the school district itself.

“The Oxford community deserves board members it can trust to keep its children safe and move it forward,” the group said.

Parental anger toward the district is not uncommon: Many members of the Oxford community have expressed frustration with the lack of information they have gotten from the district about what happened — even after the publication of the third-party investigation report last year. At a November 2023 board meeting, parents argued that the district still had not apologized or addressed certain concerns, such as why some staff members had not fired for their role in the shooting.

Guidepost's 572-page investigative report says that while the school properly executed its safety 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 for a 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 before the shooting were also given some responsibility in the third-party report. However, investigators said only a fraction of the school employees they sought to speak with actually agreed to be interviewed and contribute to the investigation. Other employees reportedly obtained the services of a lawyer 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 available soon.

The victims' parents argued that everyone who had the ability to do more to prevent the shootings, especially school staff, should be held accountable for their children's deaths. The Oakland County District Attorney's Office previously said it would not prosecute school staff or officials in connection with the shooting due to government immunity.

The district and some school staff, however, are at the center of a federal lawsuit filed by the victims' families.