By Don Rush

For Jill Lemond safety in Oxford Community Schools is personal. Not only because it’s her job as Assistant Superintendent of Safety and Operations, but also because her kids attend Oxford schools.

“It is personal, not just for me,” Lemond said, “but for our entire staff. We have over 400 students in our schools whose parents work in the district. So, safety is personal.”

Lemond has worked for the district for 12 years. She admits after the Nov. 30 shooting at Oxford High School efforts to increase the health and safety of students and staff have been in the forefront for the district. However, she is also fast to point out Oxford had already implemented plans for safety. “We have invested in safety for over 10 years,” she said. “We had a head start over many other districts.”

For example, she said in 2019 the district made sure “Stop the Bleeding” kits were supplied to all classrooms and common areas. Staff and students are trained to use. In 2020, the district upgraded and increased the number of Automated External Defibrillators (AED) to prevent cardiac emergencies in classrooms. Because of the district’s training they have earned MI Heart Safe certification (see related story).

The district has also entered into a couple of Artificial Intelligence (AI) pilot programs to help stop weapons from entering the district.

“We have 30 cameras strategically placed throughout the district – areas we feel are the most vulnerable – to help look for guns,” Lemond said. “Zeroeyes is an AI software that uses our existing technology.”

If the AI program detects if a gun is real or something like a squirt gun. If a threat is determined to be real, their personnel contacts the local safety dispatch.

Another pilot AI program the distinct will use this fall is like a metal detection system and is called Evolv. “These kiosks will be placed at Oxford High School’s three exterior entry doors and allow people to walk through at the pace of life,” she said.

According to the Evolv website, “Visitors want to move quickly through security checkpoints at a seamless pace, knowing they’re well-protected everywhere inside your venue—while your security teams want the assurance that they can reliably pinpoint and stop threats. This shouldn’t be a trade-off. The Evolv weapons detection system combines powerful sensor technology with proven artificial intelligence (AI), security ecosystem integrations, and comprehensive venue analytics to ensure safer, more accurate threat detection at an unprecedented speed and volume.”

Before the start of the new year, Lemond said the district will invite families to familiarize themselves with Evolv.

The district also uses two systems to monitor student online behavior, Gaggle and Go Guardian. Gaggle monitors students’ school Google emails for key words about such topics as self harm, violence, bullying, profanity and nudity. Go Guardian looks at what students are searching on the internet. When there is an issue, trained district counselors and staff intervene.

“All the technology only works,” she said, “because administration, staff support the technology. We are asking our people to do more, train more and they are answering the call. I can’t stress this enough: it’s just not technology. Technology only compliments the wonderful things are people are doing.”

The district has a Safety Committee made up of administration, area first resoponders and leaders from Oxford Township and Village. This group meets semi-annually and working with a new Parent sub-committee are coming up with a three year safety plan. Lemond said 66 local parents applied to be on the sub-committee, of those 11 were chosen. They are set to meet in August.

“We all want our students and staff to feel safe, but we need to find a balance. If it is too safe, it doesn’t feel like a school,” she said.

When school starts there will be armed security officers in all buildings and the district will have its own ammunition sniffing dog. During summer break the district is also making door numbers easier to read, installing safety shades on windows and a mass notification system for armed intruders in the high and middle schools. “As time goes, we will slowly fill out to all the elementary schools, too,” she said.

Lemond said the district will gradually start working back to having age-appropriate emergency drills for students and staff. “We’ll find the balance from being traumatized to transitioning to having drills. It will depend on what students are comfortable with. Our staff and student drills prior to (the shooting) was very important. You can say what you want about what happened leading up to the shooting and why, that is a different conversation. Our training saved lives. We are proud of our teachers, students and administrators. When that happened our kids knew what to do,” she said.

This summer the district also created and filled two new positions based from feedback from staff, families, and students. They hired Todd Barlass as Executive Director of Student Services and Wellness and Laura Azoni as Recovery Coordinator. These positions deal with the mental wellness of students.