By Don Rush

Towards the end of the regular Oxford community School Board meeting on March 14 at Oxford Middle School, Board president Dan D’Alessandro opened up “unscheduled” comments from the audience. And, that’s when they heard from Buck Myre.

Myre, whose son Tate was one of four killed in the Nov 30, 2021 shooting at Oxford High School, first handed board members a sheet of paper for them to read before starting his comments. Vice President Heather Shafer, after reading the paper, bowed her head and put her hands over her face.

“I don’t even know where to start,” an emotional Myre said. “And, I don’t even know what to say. But, imagine going to the coroner’s office and picking this up. While I don’t believe anybody did anything in malice that day. Who would want to do that?

“But, I do believe that things went wrong that day. I don’t understand why we are running from it. I don’t get it. The only way we will ever grow is to learn from our mistakes. I remember I used to tell Tate that all the time. We would take the disappointments he had. When he lost his sophomore year in the state wrestling tournament. There was a buzz about Tate. A young sophomore wrestling up in a man’s class. There was a little bit of a buzz, he was expected to be all-state. And, he choked. When he had the chance to talk about it, I put my arm around him and I said, ‘Well, your biggest leaps come from your biggest failures, Tate. And, you need to embrace that. Be accountable for what you need to get better at.’ Tate absorbed it, and from that day forward he looked at life differently because he didn’t achieve something he wanted to achieve. And, he was gonna’ be great. But, he didn’t have that opportunity to be great that following year.

“When I think of how we’ve handled this, I can’t believe I need to be up here even talking about it. I can’t believe you guys can put your heads on your pillows every night and think you’ve done everything to get accountability. I can’t believe that I’ve have to remind you not to have these guys here out of respect for us,” he said, turning to point to attorneys for the district. “Those are simple things that are gone in our society that matter.

“I don’t want to get into any details. We know nothing. But, we know enough to ask more questions. And, you guys aren’t asking questions, you’re taking directions from attorneys and you’re protecting the house. And, you are never going to get better by protecting the house, because those attorneys are all about money and power. We know the insurance companies are pulling strings and you’re the puppets. We get it. But how are we going to get better? We do it by owning it. We own it and we get better. You are not showing that – most importantly – to our kids. Our kids are watching your every move and they are not seeing it.

“So, as a district, we want to hold our kids accountable. What do we have to stand on? We got nothing, because we’re not standing up and holding ourselves accountable for anything. We can sit here and argue all day long about whether we did something right that day. And when I say ‘we,’ I mean you, the district. But, let’s ask those questions. Get it out on the table and figure it out. But, we can’t get there. It’s a long shot that someday you guys – this district – will be accountable and we’ll get better. In the meantime, I’m gonna’ keep on doing what I am doing, because that’s what Tate would want. And, I am going to keep driving change through 42 Strong (the Tate Myre Foundation), and I’m going to advocate and we’re going to make a difference.

“My question to you is, are you going to make a difference?”

Then he left the podium to applause from the audience.

After Myre’s and a few other audience comments the board went into closed session at 8:11 p.m. The closed session was ended and the regular meeting commenced to be adjourned at 10:10 p.m.

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The company hired by the school district, Guidepost Solutions, has stated it will release its initial report this spring. In an update about what happened on and leading up to the Nov. 30 shooting, Guidepost released this statement on March 6. “ . . . Since our last update, we have continued to receive greater voluntary cooperation from District employees including critical witnesses. The interviews for most critical witnesses have been completed. We are in the process of scheduling a handful more interviews with critical witnesses over the coming weeks . . . Additionally, the District has provided us with all requested materials (including pre-November 30, 2021 communications with counsel) except for a handful of new procedure documents that are currently being implemented and reviewed by the District. We expect that at the end of the District’s implementation and review process, hopefully in early April, we will be able to examine and report on whether certain District procedures are in place and consistent with best practices. We have received from the District almost 700,000 documents . . . of which approximately 70,000 documents were responsive and required human review for relevance and materiality.”