By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
Staff Writer
OXFORD TWP. – The Oxford board of education received a quarterly safety update from Dr. Allison Willemin, executive director of school safety, operational technology and student services, during the board’s Dec. 12 meeting,
“This update pertains to the ongoing recovery plan,” said Willemin.
Willemin outlined the upcoming objectives for the district and the action steps they will be taking, or have already taken. These include conducting building/vulnerability assessments using assessments specialized for the district.
“My department found that the CISA tool that is required by the state of Michigan is not thorough enough for our expectations, so we took eight different assessment tools and combined them into one document,” she said.
The other objectives include adding 24/7 weapons detection system, utilizing a weapons detection dog with a district handler for service at all schools, continuing to employ two school resource officers, maintain use of clear backpacks at secondary schools, maintain the AED fleet and add additional Stop the Bleed kits and conduct ongoing staff training, and to ask parents to acknowledge safe gun storage as part of the registration process.
“We ask parents to acknowledge their safe gun storage, as that law has changed in Michigan, and we do have that updated information in our enrollment packet and we will continue to have that in our registration materials,” she said.
Willemin also outlined objectives to help refine safety procedures and communication to identify and respond to safety concerns. These include monthly behavior threat assessment and management (BTAM) meetings with each school; host PREPaRE 1 training for new CRISIS team members; host BTAM training for new BTAM members; host threat assessment/suicide risk assessment training for support staff and the community; having all staff complete appropriate safety/security training; completing all state required drills; becoming an ALICE certified organization; continuing to review data; and utilizing the anonymous tip line OK2Say.
The board also received the threat assessment report and suicide risk assessment report for August – November 2023.
“The number of full-threat assessments has gone down thanks to our screening process,” Willemin said. “Part of it that we have on there, when we determine we’re not running a full-threat assessment or we’re not running a full suicide risk assessment, they have to justify why and what the follow up is going to be.”
Even without a full assessment, students are still asked about access to weapons or dangerous instrumentalities.
On the report, there were 59 threat assessment screeners completed: four at Clear Lake Elementary, five at Daniel Axford Elementary, seven at Oxford Elementary School, 10 at Oxford Middle School, four at Oxford Virtual Academy and 29 at Oxford High School.
For full threat assessment, there were 12 assessments done, including two categorized as minimal priority at Clear Lake, three minimal priority at OES, one minimal priority at OMS, two minimal priority at OVA, two moderate priority at OHS and two high priority at OHS. The two high priority ones were not categorized as a threat to the whole school.
“These were not a threat to the entire campus, it was two students who had problems with each other, and their behaviors were escalating, so the threat assessment team elected to do a threat assessment on both students because the conflict between the two students was escalating and we wanted to ensure they had the proper support,” she said. “Whether we’re conducting a threat assessment or a suicide risk assessment, there is a student that is expressing trouble. It was two students threatening each other.”
For suicide risk assessments, there were 50 screeners completed: one at Clear Lake, one at Daniel Axford, two at OES, seven at OMS, one at OVA and 38 at OHS. Full suicide risk assessments were completed for 26 students, including one low risk at Lakeville Elementary, one low risk at OES, four low risk, five moderate risk and one high risk at OMS, one low risk at OVA, and two low risk, eight moderate risk and three high risk at OHS.
“You are able to see that we have been able to address the needs of the students,” she said.