Three Q&A sessions for community on Thursday

By Don Rush

The first of two reports on what led up to and after the Nov. 30, 2021 shootings which saw four Oxford High School students murdered, is due out this week — prior to three community forums tomorrow.

According Bradley Dizik, Executive Vice President at the firm Guidepost Solutions, the first report is on OHS’s current threat and suicide assessment and physical security practices, versus documenting on “security and threat assessment programs and practices that were interim and no longer applicable.”

This report, some 200 pages, will be released to the school board, school administration and to the community “at the same time.”

Last November, Guidepost stated it should have an initial report ready for the public and school board by January. In January the firm posted on its website, “Because of these personnel changes and the opportunity to report to the Oxford community on the current security and threat assessment practices with additional information that derives from the increase in voluntary cooperation, Guidepost’s first report will now be released in Spring 2023. This report and any subsequent report will be released to the public at the same time as it is released to the Oxford Community Schools’ Board of Education and its administration. Our public report(s) will be unedited and without influence from any stakeholder associated with the Oxford Community Schools.”

He said the investigation report efforts increased when Dan D’Alessandro took over as school board president and when Dr. Vickie Markavitch took over as the school district’s Superintendent. “Beginning in the winter, with the election of Dan D’Alessandro as President and the appointment Dr. Vickie Markavitch as Superintendent we experienced more voluntary cooperation from school employees including those represented by counsel.”

At the April 11 school board meeting Dizik told the school board, “We have reviewed all these practices. This report will document a lot of good practices, others that may be excessive and unneeded going forward, and places where improvement can be made. After this first report is released and at the request of this board for community listening sessions, we will host a community forum to answer questions about our first report for the Oxford community and the public.”

Those Question and Answer forums are slated for tomorrow (Thursday). The first session will be at the Oxford Township Board Room from 11 a.m to 12:30. The Township Hall is located at 300 Dunlap Rd.

The other two sessions will be at Oxford Middle School, 1420 Lakeville Rd. The afternoon meeting is in the school commons area, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. The evening session is from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in the school cafeteria.

All questions will be asked via note cards. No questions about Guidepost’s findings related to the independent investigation will be answered at these meetings.

* * *

The second report, Dizik said, will include his firm’s findings from their investigation on what happened leading up to and on the day of the shooting when Hana St. Juliana, Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre and Justin Shilling were killed. For this report, he said Guidepost Solutions has been in contact with the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office.

“The Prosecutor’s Office has provided Guidepost with significant, detailed information relating to the incident. That information is critical to the review, and some portions of that information are still non-public. As a condition of receiving that information, Guidepost pledged that it would not divulge any nonpublic information until such time as the Prosecutor was comfortable that disclosure would not impact the Miller hearing for the shooter (Ethan Crumbley) or the criminal trial of (Crumbley’s parents Jennifer and James),” he said in April.

He said the second report could come out before the hearing or criminal trials, but that a date is yet to be determined.

Guidepost Solutions’ report will be posted on both the school district’s and Guidepost’s websites, as well as the Guidepost Solutions run website, oxfordresponse.com.