Families of the victims of the Oxford High School shooting respond

The parents of two victims of Nov. 30, 2021, shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan are requesting greater openness from the Oxford Community School District after the board decided last year against pursuing an independent probe into the incident.

The Oxford Board of Education announced on Tuesday that it has declined, for the second time, an offer from Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel to conduct a third-party investigation into the school shooting in order to determine how shooting suspect Ethan Crumbley, 15, managed to kill four students and injure seven others last fall.

“To me, this is an admission of guilt,” Buck Myre, the father of slain 16-year-old Tate Myre, said at a news conference on Thursday. “They are aware that something went wrong that day, but they are unwilling to speak up and change it.” They will hide behind official immunity, as well as insurance and attorneys. What does this educate the children? They are in their senior year of high school. This is poor leadership.

In December 2021, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald stated that school authorities met with Crumbley and his parents to discuss violent drawings he made just hours before the horrific spree. During the discussion, the 15-year-old suspect persuaded them that the disturbing drawings were for a “video game.” His parents “refused categorically” to take their son home.

Several lawsuits have been filed against the school system and school workers as a result of the shooting, including two that seeks $100 million in damages each on behalf of the family of two sisters who attend the school.

Myre and Meghan Gregory, the mother of 15-year-old Keegan Gregory, who survived the shooting but was traumatized by Crumbley’s rampage, are suing Crumbley’s parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, as well as school employees for negligence.

“They are the only ones who are aware of what occurred that day. They are the ones who know what the breakdown would have been and where it occurred, and that is what we are searching for “Gregory said on Thursday. “I suppose I’m more perplexed as to why the excuses? Is it because you’re hiding somewhere? Because that’s how we all feel out here, saying, “Let’s figure out what occurred that day so we can solve it.”

The attorney general went on to say that her office “can only conduct a comprehensive and complete examination with the full cooperation of the school board and district.”

“In the absence of such collaboration, I am limited to the publicly available material that we have all read and examined. Regardless of the decision, I will return to Oxford in the coming weeks to continue my work as a community resource “She stated. “This recent setback will not dissuade my efforts to promote best practices across our state to assist all schools in improving the safety and security of their learning environments.”