School board gets update

By Don Rush

The community and Oxford Board of Education received an update on the second of two independent reports revolving around the Nov. 30, 2021 shooting at Oxford High School. Andrew O’Connell, president of the firm hired to do the investigation, Guidepost Solutions spoke at the June 13 board meeting.

The district hired the firm in May of 2022 to investigate Oxford Community Schools safety and security policies and procedures before, during and after the shooting. Guidepost released its first of two reports in the beginning of May. The first report addressed the district’s current school practices and made recommendations for changes which can be made. The second report will include the firm’s findings about the district’s school safety and security policies and practices in place at the time of the shooting, interactions with the shooter before the shooting, and actions before, during, and after the shooting where Hana St. Juliana, Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre and Justin Shilling were killed.

“We have reviewed thousands of documents and communications, videos and other relevant materials,” O’Connell said. “We interviewed dozens of witnesses. Although not everyone has cooperated with our work, we have tried to complete the investigation with information from witnesses, documents and materials that were made available to us. This includes interviews with board members, the administration, teachers, staff, students, families, community members, the sheriff’s office, along with court filings, deposition transcripts and hearings from the court cases. We’ve also received substantial assistance from the (Oakland County) prosecutor’s office – all in the middle of two high profile, sensitive criminal cases which arose from the shooting. Without the cooperation our work would have been much more difficult and time consuming.

“We will be meeting again with the prosecutor’s office this month, because there may be additional materials made available to us. We will also be meeting this month with the sheriff’s office in an effort to obtain additional information.

“Many victims, survivors and their families, despite unimaginable pain and trauma, met with us. We briefed them on our work, we listened to their concerns and we received valuable information from them. We have not discussed our specific findings with anyone, including the board. Our findings will be in our reports only, along with the statement of our work . . . our final report will address matters leading up to the shooting, the shooting and the aftermath. We are in the final stages of our investigation and most of our time now is writing the final report. We have many areas to cover and the subject matter is tragic and traumatic. We are working as hard, professionally and efficiently to get our final report done.”

Outside of writing, he said, Guidepost is still trying to get “critical” interviews, documents, and materials to “fill in the gaps.”

“When we have a draft of the final report ready, we will share with the prosecutor any information in the report that comes from the prosecutor. We have an agreement with the prosecutor that we must first obtain the prosecutor’s consent to use in our report information that came from the prosecutor. This does not relate to other information we have obtained during our investigation.”

He said his goal is to have that draft final report done by the end of summer for the prosecutor to review and issue a final report in the fall.

Board member Amanda McDonough asked, “So when you say ‘fall’ does that mean prior to or after the start of the next school year?”

O’Connell said the goal is to have the report completed before the school year. “If there are additional materials soon we may still be able to meet that goal before school starts, but with the understanding there are still some things we are trying to get, I want to be cautious as to when we can get the report out. But, definitely by the fall, if not before school, then shortly after school starts.”

McDonough then put out the call to the community saying there is still time to contact Guidepost with information for their investigation.

“I know people are anxious to get the report,” O’Connell said. “I am well aware of that, but we gotta get it right. It’s really sensitive stuff, peoples’ lives and liberties are at stake. So we are being cautious of what we are putting in the report.”

Board member Dr. Erin Reis said, “When this report is released, this community is going to need a lot of support because it’s going to be a whiplash, slingshot back to that day. I don’t know if you remember where you were on September 11, but I can tell you where I was on November 30 . . . Everyone is going to drop to that place the minute the report is posted . . . if there is any delay or anything, if you can give us a week’s notice so we can make sure we have the coalition, the Resiliency Center (ready), people are going to need support.”

During the public comment part of the meeting, former board members Tom Donnelly and Korey Bailey spoke to the board. Both resigned from the board last fall.

“In the spring of 2022,” Donnelly said, “Seven to zero the board members believed we were not being told the truth. In May,President (Dan) D’Alessandro and I were on the phone talking with someone from the prosecutor’s office who told us we were being lied to. We voted within a week to hire Guidepost to put them to work. In July counsel went behind the board’s back and went against the legal vote of elected officials and told union representation and attorneys not to participate in the Guidepost investigation . . . in September we voted to go into closed session. Two (board members) resigned.”

He chastised the board for not giving documents to Guidepost. He also asked the board to remove the client attorney privilege in close session. “The only reason we don’t have the report is because they don’t have the information.”

Bailey asked the board to lift restrictions from him and Donnelly. “Tom and I sat through hours of depositions answering, ‘Yes, we know the facts, but we are restricted to silence.’ You heard Guidepost talk about the roadblocks they are still facing. We couldn’t be of any help to Guidepost for the same reason. We were a roadblock to them and you are a roadblock to us. I am asking again, to allow Tom and I the opportunity to speak truthfully and completely to both Guidepost and future depositions.”