OXFORD (WWJ) – Students and parents in Oxford are calling for change nearly five months after the deadly school shooting that claimed the lives of four students, injured several others and rocked a community to its core.
Students say they don’t feel any safer today than they did on Nov. 30, the day a student opened fire on his classmates inside the school.
Students and parents alike are calling for changes to the district’s safety plans going into next school year, including the installation of metal detectors, stiffer bag checks, a greater security presence inside the school and mental healthcare access.
Among those gathering for a town hall meeting at the American Legion Post Post 108 in Oxford on Thursday afternoon, 17-year-old student Griffen Jones said the school has “added almost nothing” since students returned in January.
“We already have to go back, we live our worst nightmare everyday, so it’s real hard when it feels like my voice isn’t being heard – no one’s voice is being heard,” Jones told reporters on Thursday.
Jones and others gathered on Thursday wearing shirts that said “Oxford 4 Change.”
The teen said he’d like to see metal detectors, security guards and people students can talk with when they “just aren’t there that day,” or need some time to think about everything that happened.
“Every day I pray that whatever conversation I have with my friends or anyone else isn’t my last with them or my last conversation ever,” he said. “Every day I pray that I won’t die on the high school floor because of the lack of caring they have shown towards me and my friends, the whole student body and teachers.”
School administrators pledged to ramp up security measures at the school in the wake of the shooting, but the group gathered on Thursday says the district hasn’t done enough. The group is calling for the school to hire a new, independent school safety expert – the University of Michigan’s National Center for School Safety, for example – to make recommendations ahead of next school year. Parents and students say they should be involved in that decision.
The group is also calling for a public and transparent update of safety plans that allows parents and students to provide input.
Student input is a large priority for many that are calling for change – especially Griffen's father.
“A lot of what these kids want is just to be heard. They just want their voices heard,” he said. “They want the parents and the people and the adults that are in the proper situations to ask them: ‘what do they want?’ And that is yet to happen once.”
He says his son tried to get a meeting with the principal shortly after returning to in-person school back in January. He was allegedly told it would be about two weeks until a meeting would happen.
“That was three months ago – he still can’t (get a meeting),” Jones said.
The father says another student has “been blown off five or six times” when he requested to ask the principal “a few simple questions.”
“Nobody just wants to ask the kids what would make them feel safe,” Jones said. We almost need just one town hall, where it’s just the kids talking. No parents, no adults, no administration. Just 100% the students.”
Four students -- Tate Myre, Hana St. Juliana, Madisyn Baldwin and Justin Shilling -- were killed in the shooting, while six other students and a teacher were wounded. Ethan Crumbley is on trial, facing a number of charges, including murder and terrorism. His parents are facing charges of involuntary manslaughter.
Related
Related
