By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
Staff Writer
OXFORD TWP. – During the Dec. 12 regular school board meeting, Oxford Middle School principal Brad Bigelow gave a report on a false alarm that occurred on Dec. 1.
The false alarm was triggered by a technical issue.
According to the timeline, at 8:31 a.m., a network switch was found accidentally unplugged and was moved to a more secure outlet to avoid accidental unplugging in the future. A component of the mass notification system was also plugged into the same circuit, and because of the large power draw from the network switch which occurs upon start-up, there was an abnormal reaction which activated the alarm.
At 8:32, Bigelow made announcements of the false alarm and communicated with law enforcement, dispatch and district personnel to alert them of the false alarm.
“When the false alarm had sounded, immediately our staff, administration, counselors, security personnel, they were in hallways going out into the building and really just filling any need that might arise,” said Bigelow. “Whether it was a student who needed something, a staff member, regardless, made sure we were there to support in any capacity. It was a total team effort, we’re extremely grateful for that.”
On Saturday, Dec. 2, staff met to plan for Monday when students would return to school to discuss support needs. Communications were also regularly sent out to families detailing the situation and plans for the following week.
On Dec. 4, students started first hour with restorative circle lessons, facilitated by staff, and all students filled out an exit slip communicating their needs on a scale of one to three, with one indicating they felt fine, two indicating they were a little nervous and wanted to meet with a mental health professional that week, and three meaning they were very nervous and wanted to meet with someone that day.
There were 685 students who ranked themselves at level one, 122 students at level two, and 26 students at level three.
“Our mental health team met with all 26 of those students that day, on Monday the fourth. The remaining 122 students were met with throughout the course of the week. Outstanding job by our mental health team,” said Bigelow.
When the false alarm sounded, Bigelow said ALICE protocols were followed by students and staff in many ways, including the utilization of NightLocks, barricading of doors, and two classrooms that were able to safely evacuate the building.
“I think it’s important to know, when you see ALICE you think of evacuation as a last resort,” he said. “Through our training, we have learned that if you are able to evacuate, you evacuate. These two classrooms, based on their location within the building and based on the information they had, they got out. They did not have to go back in the hall at all, they were able to exit out of their classrooms.”
The school staff are also making a few changes moving forward in equipment, training and protocol, including updating the PA system in the gym, which works but is slightly muffled. They also plan to review uncommon places with students and to look at some windows as possible evacuation methods.
“It was a total team-effort across the board,” Bigelow said.
The component of the mass notification system is being replaced.