By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
Staff Writer
OXFORD TWP. – During the regular meeting on Feb. 27, Dr. Allison Willemin, executive director of school safety, operational technology and student services, gave the Oxford board of education a quarterly safety update that included an updated number for suicide risk assessments and threat assessments.
“Because of Christmas break, things like that, it’s a lot less than it would be,” said Willemin. “So, screeners are outweighing our full assessments, which means our process is working. Which means our multidisciplinary teams are gathering and following our procedures and working through the different scenarios. That doesn’t mean we have less people reporting, it means our screening process is evaluating things.”
For December and January, 15 suicide risk assessment screeners were conducted, as were six suicide risk assessments.
School-year-to-date, there have been a total of 64 suicide risk assessment screeners conducted, with one at Clear Lake Elementary, one at Daniel Axford Elementary, two at Oxford Elementary, 13 at Oxford Middle School, three at Oxford Virtual Academy and 44 at Oxford High School.
In addition, 31 full suicide risk assessments were conducted, one low risk at Lakeville Elementary, one low risk at Oxford Elementary, four low risk, eight moderate risk and one high risk at Oxford Middle School, one low risk at Oxford Virtual Academy, two low risk, 10 moderate risk and three high risk assessments at Oxford High School.
Willemin also presented the threat assessment report for the last two months and year-to-date.
For December and January, there were 11 threat assessment screeners and seven full threat assessments conducted.
For this current school year, there have been 70 total threat assessment screeners: four at Clear Lake Elementary, seven at Daniel Axford Elementary, two at Lakeville Elementary, seven at Oxford Elementary, four at Oxford Virtual Academy and 34 at Oxford High School.
There were also 19 full threat assessment screeners conducted, including four rated minimal priority at Clear Lake Elementary, three minimal priority and two moderate priority at Oxford Elementary, two minimal priority at Oxford Middle School, two minimal priority at Oxford Virtual Academy, and one minimal priority, three moderate priority and two high priority at Oxford High School.
“As a reminder, the two high priority (assessments) at Oxford High School were two students who were escalating each other, they were not threats to the high school community,” she said. “We felt that at that time because the behaviors were escalating towards each student that it was in our best interest to perform a threat assessment. It was not a threat to the entire campus.”
Willemin also outlined various steps the district has taken and are going to take going forward for safety and security, including the door security audits, a 24/7 weapons detection system and re-training the weapons detection dog.
“We did have our door audit, our intruder drill,” she said. “None of our buildings were able to be breached in any way shape or form. All entrance points that go into the front office or the secure vestibule were met with someone who asked what their purpose was for being there. So it was an excellent review of procedures.”
She explained that the DriftNet 24/7 weapons detection system would not be put in place and they are looking for another option.
“Driftnet did not come through,” she said. “It was a great idea, great grant opportunity for us in the budget deficit. We have been looking at other products and we will continue to do so for 24/7 weapons detection. “
Willemin said the current weapons detection dog also got an evaluation and it was determined the dog would undergo 96 hours of recertification and she would attend regular training to keep her skills sharp.