Independent investigation into 2021 Oxford High shooting released

Independent investigators concluded that the Oxford High School shooting on Nov. 30, 2021, was avoidable, had the district followed threat assessment policy, in a 572-page report released Monday evening.

The report notes that "individuals at every level" in Oxford Community Schools including the district's former Superintendent Timothy Throne, the school board and administrators failed to provide a safe and secure environment for students. It emphasizes that the shooter should have been sent home on Nov. 30 after counselors called his parents in for a meeting over behavioral concerns. Instead, he was allowed to return to class.

"Our investigation has revealed that had proper threat assessment guidelines been in place and District threat assessment policy followed, this tragedy was avoidable," the report reads.

The investigation, led by Guidepost Solutions, examines the events on and surrounding the shooting. The firm was hired by Oxford Community Schools' board in 2022 following an outcry from the community around school safety and lingering concerns over what district officials knew about disturbing behavior exhibited by the shooter, Ethan Crumbley, before he killed four students and injured six students and a teacher. Several school board members since that outcry have resigned and similarly have questioned the district's transparency around the shooting.

Read the report here:

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The four students who died were Tate Myre, Hana St. Juliana, Madisyn Baldwin and Justin Shilling.

Shortfalls in threat and suicide assessment

The report specifically calls out members of the school district's administration for failures involving the district's threat assessment process. Threat assessments conducted in schools on students typically examine whether a student poses danger to themselves or others.

While investigators found the district had adopted threat assessment policies, there were significant shortfalls in executing these policies in Oxford, the review found.

For instance: "While the District had adopted a threat assessment policy and published a threat assessment form as of November 30, 2021, the District failed (at that time) to implement threat assessment guidelines consistent with the District’s threat assessment policy," the report reads.

The report places blame on Throne, who was charged with creating such guidelines, and the board at the time, which should have ensured its policies were implemented.

The report notes that Throne failed to make it evident which district administrators were responsible for threat assessments, so much so that two school administrators in the report, then-Assistant Superintendent Jill Lemond and then-Assistant Superintendent Ken Weaver said that they believed the other was responsible for threat assessments.

"We found that OHS administrators, faculty, and staff were unaware of the District’s threat assessment policy or the District’s threat assessment form," the report reads. "That is a significant failure, one that rests primarily with Superintendent Throne, who as the District’s chief executive officer is ultimately responsible for ensuring that building-level administrators know about and are following the District’s policies."

Throne could not be immediately reached for comment.

The report also states that the shooter should have been assessed under suicide intervention protocol, and that counselor Shawn Hopkins and Nicholas Ejak, Oxford dean of students, should have elevated concerns about the shooter to Oxford High's principal and assistant principals.

Ejak and Hopkins could also not be immediately reached for comment.

In addition, the report found no one was monitoring the more than 90 security cameras around the school and its grounds so staffers were not able to "broadcast ongoing messaging regarding the Shooter’s location and movements" to students and staff in the school, which would be protocol for active shooter situations.

"We found no plan for monitoring school cameras in an active shooter situation inside the school or in any other emergency, and accordingly, there was no staff member assigned to this task," according to the review.

Shooter told classmates it was the 'last day of school'

According to the report, Hopkins testified that on Nov. 30, he checked the school's attendance system to make sure that Crumbley was marked as present in his fourth hour class and lunch because he wanted to make sure Crumbley was never alone.

In that class, Crumbley told another student, "Don't worry, it is the last day of school," the report states that the student told police. There's no evidence that any student who heard this reported it to school officials, and the report stresses that all students mentioned in the report were children.

"Again, we emphasize that these students are not responsible in any way for what happened on November 30, 2021," the report states. "While students can be a valuable source of information about potential threats, it is not the responsibility of school-age children to prevent school shootings."

Many didn't cooperate with investigation

Guidepost reached out to 143 current or former Oxford Community Schools employees about interviews, but just 51 were interviewed, according to the report. Many denied interview requests or did not respond, which Guidepost attributes to concern around ongoing lawsuits connected to the shooting.

Guidepost asked the district to require employees to participate, but the district refused. The investigators specifically call out seven district employees who were not interviewed for the investigation but played a crucial role in the events surrounding the shooting, which includes Hopkins and Ejak, as well as other Oxford High employees.

While some school district employees declined interviews, family members of all four victims did sit down with investigators, as well as students who survived Nov. 30.

Families consistently told investigators that they were disappointed by the transparency and support they received from the district.

Contact Lily Altavena: laltavena@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Independent investigation into 2021 Oxford High shooting released