Time to build bridges to the community

By Don Rush

It’s been about seven months since that horrible day in November. The day a student is alleged to shoot and kill four of his classmates, while wounding seven others at Oxford High School. And, for almost as long, the Oxford School Board has been silent, allowing many in the community to openly criticize their actions.

Those days are done.

“I think we as a board realized we were not engaging enough with the community,” school board president Tom Donnelly said Friday morning. “We understand our silence was upsetting to the community.”

A month ago, he said, the board finally figured it out. They started “listening” he said and what the board heard were only negative voices and not just the voice of the community, they also heard voices of public relations firms, attorneys and consultants.

“We want the community to understand that we accept what they have said. We apologize for our silence. We feel confident now to reach out and communicate, so no longer will we be silent. We will build a bridge with the community, we will be proactive to eliminate the community’s fears and doubts.”

At the special board meeting on June 21 read a statement, much of it was also emailed to families in the school district. In the meeting and in the statement, Donnelly wanted to make sure the community knew that the district’s independent third party investigation has started and as information is available it will be shared with the community and the board simultaneously. This will be accomplished, in part, by a new website and email address from the investigative team which the community can access and communicate to that team directly.

This was done, he added, to quell fears that the school board and administration would manipulate and delete information before sharing with the community.

“We want to learn what led up to this tragedy, what happened immediately prior to and on the day of the shooting, and exactly how the school responded that day and in the days that followed,” his statement read. “To ensure the integrity of this investigation, we needed the best. It was critical that we select an independent team that’s highly experienced in conducting sensitive investigations of a similar nature. The team at Guidepost Solutions, in partnership with Varnum Law, brings global experience working with K12 and higher educational institutions, nonprofits, Fortune 500 companies, government agencies and others on similar investigations. The district is making all materials and information available to the investigative team.”

The statement further reads, “The investigative report will be an unbiased reflection of the team’s findings and will include actionable recommendations related to those findings. Guidepost will share their report with the community at the same time it’s shared with the board and school administration.

In the end, our goals are to maximize student and staff safety in the future and, specifically, to prevent another shooting at Oxford Community Schools.”

Donnelly said the website should be up and running in about a month.

According to his statement, information on the website should at least include: Information about security investments and upgrades; Notifications announcing when families and the media can view the new security systems in action prior to school opening in the fall; Details about the nature and scope of the independent investigation and periodic updates on where we are in the process; Links to resources such as counseling services; And a secure email through which students, family members and members of the community can share information or request a meeting with investigators.

He said Guidepost has already created the email address and it is available for people to “ request a meeting or share information with investigators.” The email address is

Oxford@guidepostsolutions.com.

“Of course, independent investigations like these take time, and we will not sacrifice the integrity of the investigation with an artificial timeline,” his statement read. “With that said, the investigation team is getting in place, getting up to speed, and getting ready to begin – and they will conduct and complete their work with deliberate care and speed.”