Community responds

By Don Rush

Fifteen months have gone by since the tragedy that befell Oxford in 2021. And, last week when the news that a gunman had slain three Michigan State University students and injured five others the Oxford community was saddened, but went into action.

On Monday, Feb. 13, an “active shooter” alarm was sounded in East Lansing at 8:18 p.m. from the MSU campus. A shelter-in-place warning was put into place for the university and surrounding community. Three students, two from Grosse Pointe, Junior Arielle Anderson and Sophomore Brian Fraser and Clawson Junior Alexandria Verner were killed at Berkey Hall. Five other students were shot and critically injured at the university’s Union. The shooter, 43-year-old Anthony Dwayne McRae died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound and was discovered in Lansing by the authorities around 11:30 that night.

* * *

Oxford School Board President Dan D’Alessandro at the Feb. 14 school board meeting said around 50 students from Oxford attend MSU. At the meeting he thanked school staff, “Staff came in last night and reached out to as many Oxford graduates that they knew of at Michigan State to – first and foremost – to make sure they were okay. Secondly, to ask if they needed anything or any support. The staff went out of their way to make sure that that happened. The staff did that last night and continues to do so today.”

According to Interim Superintendent Dr. Vicke Markavitch, her administrative cabinet met at 9 p.m. on the night of the MSU shooting.

“We worked through midnight to arrange for support services to be in place for all of our students and staff, especially at the high school,” she said. “We canceled district training to keep counseling personnel in the buildings, we hired more substitute teachers to cover classrooms and help teachers as needed, we requested trauma specialists from Oakland Schools to be in our buildings on Tuesday,
all central office administrators were assigned to be in district schools Tuesday morning.
We added security coverage to our buildings and we accepted more therapy dogs and dispersed them throughout the district.
“We communicated to our district parents Monday night and on Tuesday morning letting them know what we had put in place, and at the middle and high school level we sent parents a guide on how to help their child with trauma events like this one.”

On Wednesday (Feb 15), the district’s Human Resource department called all staff with students at MSU to see if they needed help and to inform them of special support events that were happening locally.

“My administrative team worked very fast in getting what was needed in place,” Markavitch said. “Communications went out to all building administrators so they knew what to expect. I think we were well prepared to meet with our students on Tuesday morning. Our building staff stood strong for the sake of their students even though the day took a toll on all of them. We are now working on putting more resources in place to assist staff as needed. I think our actions Monday night made Tuesday doable. We decided to keep our schools open so we could get help to students — we did not want them staying home with no resources to get through the day. We understand some parents decided to keep their children at home, which is an understandable decision. In situations like this each family has to do what they think is best for their child. I think our Oxford School administration and staff did what we thought was best for our Oxford students.

“These senseless tragedies break our hearts and when they are close to home they are even more devastating. For the Oxford community their impact is compounded. Our school district will do all in our power to keep our students safe and to support them as they move forward with their learning.  Students’ well-being is our number one priority.”

* * *

The All For Oxford Resiliency Center invited all Oxford graduates who attend MSU to a gathering last Wednesday. The center was created after the Oxford shooting and is managed by Common Ground and funded by the State of Michigan through a grant by the Federal Anti-terrorism and Emergency Assistance Program. The center is devoted to “promoting mental and emotional well-being by providing opportunities for people to come together, find support, restore the community’s sense of safety and security, and help each other heal.”

The center’s Administrative Lead Susan Mingay said, “We continue to support the Oxford Community and all those affected by the recent shooting at MSU. We are available for MSU students as well and will help them find resources.”

She said there was an increase in the center’s walk-ins last week. “We held space for Oxford MSU Students to gather here on Wednesday afternoon and welcome them for all regularly scheduled programming, such as Therapy Dog Thursday.”

She added for those affected, “Do not hesitate to reach out for support, by phone or by stopping in. We are open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 6 p. We have many resources that the community may find helpful during this challenging time.”

The center is located at 1370 S. Lapeer Road, Oxford. For more information call 248-653-5511.

* * *

The Oxford Fire Department sent a crew and ambulance to East Lansing for mutual assistance.

Fire Chief Matt Majestic informed the community with the following statement.

“Let’s begin with some background. The Oxford Fire Department is a member of the Oakland County Fire Mutual Aid Association. As a member of this association we agree to assist other agencies within our county and neighboring communities when they experience situations where they are faced with incidents that require staffing and equipment beyond their capabilities. Additionally, this association is also affiliated with Michigan Mutual Aid Box Alarm System (MABAS). Within this affiliation we agree to assist other MABAS groups within the State of Michigan when they too are faced with incidents beyond their capabilities.”

So what happened that night, Feb. 13?

Majestic stated Ingham County requested “Ambulance Strike Teams” to respond for backup to the East Lansing Fire Department with the active shooter incident at Michigan State University. Oakland County was contacted and initiated an “Out of Division” Response. He said local ambulances or personnel responding were from Brandon, Groveland, Springfield, Highland, Rochester City, and Oxford along with Command Staff.

“Crews were staged near the MSU campus and readied to respond at a moments notice in case additional victims were found. As the incident progressed and deescalated, the crews were released and returned to their home jurisdictions. Oakland County crews made it back home between the hours 1:30 and 2:30 this morning,” he said adding, “The system works quite well, as we can attest to after the incident we experienced in November of 2021 when we saw State and Federal agencies respond to us from Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, and Lapeer Counties. Ingham is not as populated as we are, and their neighboring communities do not necessarily have the ability to help in such a situation.

We hope this clarifies how things happened.”