'It's a gift': Oxford parents urge committee to expand $1.7M donation fund eligibility

Countless school absences, vivid flashbacks of making direct eye contact with the shooter and of breathlessly running for their lives — these are a few examples of trauma Oxford High School students endure.

Nearly four months after 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley opened fire at Oxford High School, dozens of parents and community members spoke before a committee Monday to recount the horrors their children faced that fateful day, and continue to be tortured by.

On the line is $1.77 million that has been collected in donations set to be distributed to survivors and families of victims. How, exactly, the fund will be doled out has yet to be finalized. The distribution plan was the topic of a town hall Monday held at the high school's auditorium hosted by the fund's manager, the National Compassion Fund.

nullReleased in February, the drafted proposal defined criteria for eligible applicants based on proximity to the incident and subsequent trauma and physical injuries endured. The intention of Monday's meeting was to collect feedback and ideas from community members regarding the drafted plan, which the fund's steering committee will take into account for the finalized distribution plan.

"People around the country in the world were heartbroken and they wanted to help, and so that's why they gave and we want to honor that gift and help that process, because it's a gift," said Jeff Dion, executive director of the National Compassion Fund and manager of the Oxford fund, before the crowd both in person and virtually. "The money that we give comes with no strings attached so that people can be empowered to choose what they think is going to help them."

nullAt the core of parents' concerns were the guidelines of eligibility and definition of trauma, which they said are too narrow and exclusionary. Parents took to the microphone to tell their children's stories from that day, emphasizing that while they may lie outside the criteria, they were still dramatically impacted.

null"Every student that was within these walls that day deserves to be recognized and be included in your protocol, because as of right now they're not and that's making them feel invisible," said one mother whose daughter, a sophomore, was in the hallway adjacent to the designated area. "They heard the gunshots. They had to run for their life, not knowing what was going on."

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The logistics

The challenge of distribution lies in recognizing those who were most impacted without spreading the fund too thin, Dion explained, as handing survivors too small of a fraction of the donation only adds insult to injury.

"The truth is, nobody is standing in judgment and deciding does this person deserve this," he said. "Our goal through these protocols is to create an objective standard and then just factually determine what categories people fall in."

Further complicating matters is trying not to overlap with other systems that compensate for economic loss, including restitution through prosecution, civil litigation and the state's Crime Victim Compensation program, which reimburses victims for out-of-pocket expenses like funeral bills and counseling. Therefore, fund distribution plans by the National Compassion Fund focus on psychological trauma and emotional distress.

"This gift is also not compensation," Dion said. "Because the sad truth is, is that there's not enough money in the world to bring back the children who are lost, to heal the wounds of those who are shot, or to erase the things that far too many people in this building witnessed and endured."

The proposal outlined four eligibility criteria: legal heirs of those who were killed as a direct result of the shooting, those who were physically injured by gunshot or shrapnel wounds, those who suffered another type of physical injury during the shooting, and those who meet the eligibility requirements designated for psychological trauma.

Individuals in the four categories are required to have been physically present in an area of the high school designated by the National Compassion Fund's Steering Committee. The area is comprised of the hallway where the Nov. 30 shooting occurred, including two restrooms and a classroom.

"We prioritize those with the greatest challenge of recovery," Dion said. "Psychological trauma is bad. It is real. It is difficult. But people can recover from that, and people will and that's the good news. It will be a little harder for people who had both physical wounds and psychological trauma to recover. And death is the injury from which there is no recovery."

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Tales of trauma

Stories shared at Monday's town hall highlighted the broad spectrum of trauma that Oxford High School students live with.

Joe Ferrari said his son, who was at the school during the shooting, doesn't like to talk about his trauma, but it's been building inside of him. His son has lost approximately 50 pounds since the shooting and sometimes doesn't feel safe going to school, and Ferrari doesn't force him to.

"So now as part of the trauma that he's experiencing, whenever he doesn't want to go to school, he doesn't go to school," Ferrari said before the steering committee. "I get as many calls I want from the school, 'Your son's not there.' Call me till the cows come home. He's gonna go when he feels like going."

A mother who identified herself simply as Carey, had two sons at the school on Nov. 30 and only one was able to run out of the building while the other, a freshman, heard the violence and lives with the consequences.

null"He heard everything, the gunshots, the screams, bodies falling. He's heard it all," she said. "He's horrified to go to the bathroom. He uses the office bathroom when he's at school. He has a stomachache all the time... I get a phone call about two to three times a week that he wants to come home. He's not comfortable being in the halls alone. Loud noises scare him. He doesn't do crowds. He rarely leaves our house now."

Another mother, Carrie Kay, had two children in the building, her freshman son who was within the designated area and her senior daughter who was outside the area. Despite being in the hallway where the shooting occurred, she said her son is doing fine, but her daughter might not be able to leave for college due to her trauma.

"She's can't be in crowds, can't go to Meijer, can't do a lot of things because of the trauma," Kay said. Students fled to a Meijer store across from the school on the day of the shooting as part of its safety procedure.

Interrupting the string of parents speaking on behalf of their children was an Oxford High School student, who identified herself as a junior named Lilah. She said she was in the designated hallway where the shooting occurred.

"I would do anything not to be a part of this fund," she said in tears. "I'm sure that people who are on the other side of this school experienced trauma as well. But they were never really in danger because he (Ethan Crumbley) never went on the other side of the school, and I'm sure that they were very scared, but they were never in danger in reality because he never went on the other side of the school. And it's really hurtful to hear people saying stuff like this because I ran for my life.

"Everyone in the school is a victim but these are days I will never forget."

Distribution timeline

With public feedback now collected, the steering committee will produce a finalized distribution plan to parse out donations. Once the final plan has been released, an online application to receive funds will be available April 4 and remain open until April 29.

The amount gifted to individuals will be determined based on how much money is collected through May 20 — when the fund is set to close for donations — and a review of all applications. Funds gifted to recipients can be used however they desire.

A finalized protocol is predicted to be published March 29, followed by the posting of the application April 4. Funds are expected to be distributed in mid-June.

For more information on the distribution process, go to the National Compassion Fund's website. To donate to the fund, go to the fundraiser's GoFundMe page.

Contact Miriam Marini: mmarini@freepress.com

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Oxford parents urge committee to expand $1.7M donation fund eligibility