Oxford High School shooting investigation: Oakland County selects company to review response

Calls for a second investigation have resurfaced three years after the horrific Oxford shooting.

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    Guidepost Solutions will review Oakland County’s response to the Nov. 30, 2021 Oxford High School shooting.
    
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    The Oakland County Board of Commissioners approved $500,000 in funding for this independent review.
    
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    The same company also investigated the school district’s response, and found the district to blame in some areas.
    

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  Guidepost Solutions will review Oakland County’s response to the Nov. 30, 2021 Oxford High School shooting.
  
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  The Oakland County Board of Commissioners approved $500,000 in funding for this independent review.
  
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  The same company also investigated the school district’s response, and found the district to blame in some areas.
  

FOX 2 in OXFORD, MIAn independent investigation of Oakland County’s response to the Oxford High School shooting is the most recent move to improve transparency in the wake of the tragedy.

Following the Oakland County Board of Commissioners’ approval of $500,000 in funds for this independent study, the county announced on Monday that Guidepost Solutions will examine the response.

“Oakland County unanimously supported funding for the Oxford High School shooting after-action report,” said David T. Woodward, the district’s Democratic chair. “We pray that we will never experience these tragedies. However, we have an obligation to examine and assess our collective response when they do happen. The objective is straightforward: to make our community safer, we must learn and get better.

The guidepost will also examine a number of the response’s components, such as:

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  Command and coordination: Governance, organizational structure, and interagency collaboration.
  
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  First responder actions: Law enforcement, fire, EMS, and emergency management protocols.
  
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  Mental health and recovery: Community and first responder support services.
  
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  Communications: Public messaging, 9-1-1 operations, and interagency information sharing.
  
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  Training and preparedness: Evaluation of pre-incident training and recommendations for future improvements.
  

Guidepost will interview victims, their relatives, and first responders as well as hold town halls and listening sessions with individuals affected by the tragedy as part of the process.

The results of the evaluation are anticipated to be released around the middle of 2025.

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“Our investigation has revealed that had proper threat assessment guidelines been in place and District threat assessment policy followed, this tragedy was avoidable,” says the report.

Families call for investigation

In order to examine the shooting, the county review is conducted.

In a statement last month, the parents of Tate Myre, Hana St. Juliana, Madisyn Baldwin, and Justin Shilling called for an investigation into the incident in order to make reforms.

Tate’s father, Buck Myre, stated, “We haven’t made any significant changes in the three years since the shooting.” “Don t we want to learn from this?”

Nessel offered to look into the shooting twice, but stated that it would employ “more holistic third-party reviews.”

The school system was blamed for the shooting after those proposals were rejected.

“In certain critical areas, individuals at every level of the district, from the board to the Superintendent and his cabinet, to the OHS administration and staff, failed to provide a safe and secure environment,” the report stated.

The family members contend that despite the investigation’s findings, the deep dive lacked subpoena authority, which led “to many school employees being advised by their attorneys to not participate, leaving crucial questions unanswered.”

Nessel responded to the assertion that her agency could look into the shooting by stating that she would require a referral from the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department and Prosecutor’s agency in order to start looking into the matter.

Nessel said she would have the same authority as the Oakland County officials if she looked into the situation. As a result, she noted, an inquiry conducted by her office would probably reach the same conclusions as previous investigations.

“Any complete investigation by my office would require a number of things,” Nessel stated. “Oakland County would have to turn over their over 400 pieces of evidence admitted in the prosecution against the Crumbley family, as well as all of their evidence from their years-long investigation and prosecutions.”

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The parents of the four students who were killed in the Nov. 30, 2021, shooting at Oxford High School—Tate Myre, Hana St. Juliana, Madisyn Baldwin, and Justin Shilling—as well as other family members of the deceased are urging the state to order an independent investigation into the killing.

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