Shooting Survivors Filing $100M Lawsuit Against Oxford Schools

My response to an article to the Detroit News

I feel compelled to provide my personal / professional comments on Mr. Thorne's (the Oxford School District Superintendent) heartbreaking video message to his school community. These thoughts are based on my more than 50 years' experience working with children and young adults in many capacities, from teacher to school administrator, in rural, suburban and inner city NY/NJ public / private schools.

Personally, his message made me cry as I know how difficult it was for him not to throughout his speech. He demonstrated all the characteristic of a compassionate, yet vulnerable leader, as he stood there alone at his podium, speaking from his heart both to inform and to heal his staff and families. I will pray for him and for his community that they may move forward soon with their lives as their souls slowly heal.

However, professionally I note a flaw in his message. He states that in the this case, "no discipline was warranted".

On many points, that is a dangerous statement to be sending out and I believe, from all that I have been reading regarding the events leading up to this incident, it needs to be corrected.

The signs were there. The school should have called in the authorities immediately, not just the parents. Having the student return to class was the school's mistake. Not searching his backback was the school's negligence. I say this from having been through several similar situations throughout my career. After Columbine, my school staff and I never took any chances.

Four examples (out of hundreds I have been invovled in)

1. A 3rd grader runs into my office (I was principal at the time) screaming "he put a gun to my head!" Further investigation discovered that an 8th grader walking down the hallway between classes placed a gun to her head, laughed and walked away. She described him. I recognized who he was and called the police. Then, I went to the classroom. Looking back I should have waited for the police (as I was told afterwards) but I wanted to make sure to get him away from others as fast as possible.

I told him to get up, place his hands over his head and asked where was the gun. He told me it was in his locker. I opened his locker and sure enough, there it was - a perfect plastic toy replica of a handgun. It didn't matter to the 3rd grader, though. She had been terrorized. The 8th grader was suspended for 30 days (sent to a special day school), his home was searched and his parents had to have him speak with a psychologist before coming back to the general school population. No one complained about this at the time.

2. A 7th grader had a physical fight with another student. When he was pulled away from the fight, he began screaming how he was going to blow up the school. He said he was going to bring his gun and kill the other student and me. I called the State police. He went out in handcuffs and spent a night in jail. Polic searched his home. Nothing was found. His mother blamed me for having him go out in handcuffs. He, too, went to a special day school and had to be counseled before returning to the general school population.

3. Two 2nd grade girls came to my office and related to me that two 3rd grade boys on their bus that morning were "saying bad things". I asked them but they were too scared to tell me what it was. They did tell me who the boys were, so I took them to my office and explained why they were there.

They (John and George - not real names) told me that "Mikey started it." I asked what he said.

They said "Mikey said he was going to bring his gun to school, go into the classrooms and ask the teachers a question. If the teacher did not answer correctly, he was going to shoot them."

At that point, I separated the two boys, asked each one what it was all about. Their stories were consistent, so I went to get Mikey. When he came to my office, he did not know why, nor did he see the other two boys. I told Mikey what the girls had said. He said "Johnny and George started it". I asked what they said. He said, "They told me to bring my gun to school and ask the teachers questions. If they don't answer correctly shoot them."

I asked Mikey how did they think they would get away with this. He said I was part of the plot. One of them was going to come into my office to get my car keys and escape. I asked how they would know which car was mine (the staff parking lot was a totally separate area from where the students were). They said, "Mr. Fox, it has to say Principal somewhere!"

At this point, I called the parents and the police. The school was in a rural area of NY where there was lots of hunting.

The police searched their homes (no guns). Parents were very cooperative and apologetic. The boys were counseled and returned to school.

4. A 7th grade girl came to me and said that anoter 7th grade girl had shown her a knife from her backpack while on the bus that morning and threatened her.

I brought that girl to my office (my female secetary was with me). I had a teacher bring the girl's backpack. Sure enough, inside was a large hunting knife. The girl broke down and said that the other girls in her class had been bullying her and all she wanted to do was scare them (the other girls were known as "troublesome" to me also, so the story was believable).

That 7th grader was suspended for 60 days, sent to a special day school and received counseling. The other girls were given warnings (as there was no incident at that particular moment that would have resulted in an immediate suspension). All their parents were notified that if any girl were found to be involved in any HIB incidents, that girl, would be suspsended, etc.

I have many more scenarios including real guns, machetes, sexual assaults, gangs fighting within the school, arson attempts, drug deals, verbal threats, written threats, picture threats, etc.

I have dozens of cases in which parents and families did nothing or blamed the school for their child's problems and refused to accept discipline. I was even threatened twice by parents who disagreed with my admisnitrative decisions.

In all the cases, police were involved immediately. I even had one attempted murder in which a 4th grader had to be expelled from the school (not an easy process in public education).

The Oxford HIgh School administration should have called the police along with the parents immediately upon seeing the note and picture. Discipline WAS warranted. There is a possibility the tragedy could have been avoided. My heart goes out to everyone.

But schools must not hesitate to call the police in such cases. As the Oxford township sheriff noted in his official interview, the police would rather have to respond to 1000 false cases than to one real one.