This is an excellent report by Guidepost Solutions released this past October on their extensive investigation into the Oxford High School shooting on November 30, 2021.
It is impressive Oxford Community Schools endorsed this investigation and its results - And has already begun implementing many of the recommended changes. The details can be found on this webpage.
While the investigation shows the mitigating threat assessment policies and procedures were established, they didn’t seem to be implemented or supported by initial or recurrent training or organizational reinforcement.
This type of program gap is much more common than often thought. Organizations can gain a false sense of security by merely establishing threat assessment and response policies and procedures rather than fully implementing, testing, and reinforcing them. It’s a common finding on risk assessments I’ve performed, in all types of organizations, over the years.
Also, this tragic situation shows a school’s (or any organization’s) security program needs to be a combination of policies, procedures, controls, training, technology, and continuous threat and risk assessment.
It’s also important to note the school installed the Evolv access point weapons detection system and ZeroEyes visual weapons detection capability as part of their response. Fortunately, it seems clear the school’s leadership understands these systems are not 100% perfect but can be an effective, and critical, part of a well-thought-out and executed security plan by helping to minimize critical risk variables – As opposed to being stand-alone solutions.
We should always be looking to learn from these tragedies and these investigations and reports are crucial to that understanding. This response by Oxford Schools is also a model all school districts can learn from.
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