OXFORD, Mich. (WWJ) – School officials in Oxford say the high school will not reopen as soon as they’d initially hoped.
Officials announced during Tuesday night’s Board of Education meeting – the first since the Nov. 30 shooting that claimed the lives of four young students – they have decided they most likely won’t be ready to bring students back into the high school on Jan. 3, as they’d previously announced.
Oxford Superintendent Tim Throne, speaking during a news briefing ahead of the school board meeting, said that date was no longer realistic.
It was not clear how long the reopening will be postponed.
During Tuesday’s meeting officials agreed to start the process of hiring a third-party firm to investigate the school’s actions leading up to and following the shooting.
“Tonight would be the first step in what I see as a very long process of initiating this third-party review. A third-party review or a Blue Ribbon-type commission goes beyond just the criminal investigation side of this,” Throne told reporters.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel made an offer to do an independent review -- which was turned down by the district.
Jill LeMond, assistant superintendent of student services, told reporters before the meeting “our strong focus has been on safely and securely reopening these buildings.”
“I’m passionate about safety and security. I want to let you know that my own children were back in school Friday and I want to highlight how fantastic the reopening of school was. Our students need that normalcy and we want, desperately, to provide it for them,” she said.
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During the meeting, LeMond discussed additional safety measures the school will implement when it reopens, including additional police presence “for the foreseeable future,” hiring a private security firm to conduct a security review and discontinuing the use of backpacks and opting for clear backpacks down the road.
A timeline for implementing those measures was not clear.
Other measures include advanced social media monitoring, licensed trauma counselors in each building, “safe rooms” with a crisis team and using therapy dogs.
As the investigation into the Oxford shooting continues, many other metro Detroit schools have been inundated with threats over the last two weeks. More than three dozen students have been charged with making threats, leaving officials asking parents to talk with their kids about the shooting and its impact.