Statement about the School Shooting in Oxford, MI

 
Dear Parent(s)/Guardian(s),

Our hearts go out to the families who lost loved ones, the families of those injured, and the entire school community of Oxford Public Schools.  

We count on our students to strive to reach their fullest potential, and our students count on us to keep them safe. Naturally, many of our families, employees and students may have questions about what measures we are taking at GPS to help protect our staff and students during an active shooter or emergency event like the one that occurred yesterday in Oxford.  

Our District provides training in active threat responses. In this training, our staff learns to recognize, communicate and respond to various threat situations. In addition, our principals are charged with providing ongoing threat awareness and response training throughout the course of the school year. We also rehearse active threat responses (lockdowns) and fire emergency scenarios with all students on a regular basis as required by law. As a district, we have also invested in security measures and other technologies to keep our students and staff safe. 

We recognize the importance of working together as a community and creating multiple avenues to report perceived or actual threats. This is why we would like to remind our families and parents to speak with their student(s) about the importance of immediately reporting any threats whether they occur on school grounds, after school or on social media. Students should also realize that engaging in threatening behavior or bringing a weapon to school can carry serious consequences including expulsion from school. Our students must feel comfortable reporting any potential threats to a trusted adult. Anyone from our community can report tips confidentially 24-7 through OK2SAY and all such tips will be reviewed and investigated. 

Grandville Public Schools has increased its support systems for students in many ways during the past few years. We have added an additional school resource officer in a partnership with the Grandville Police Department. We have also more than doubled our student wellbeing support systems by adding several counselors, social workers, behavior support staff and school nurses.

At this time we do not know what prompted the shooting and it would not be appropriate for us to speculate; however, we do want to provide our families and community members ways to seek help if you are experiencing distress. For families seeking a way to talk with their children about today’s events, you may find the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) website to be a helpful resource. Non-specific safety conversations may be more appropriate for younger children and resources found on the John Hopkins site for grades K-2 and grades 3-5 may be helpful for parents who would like to have these conversations at home.

Grandville takes pride in establishing strong relationships with our fellow Bulldogs. The importance of noticing when something is off or not right with a friend is so important, along with the importance of inviting a conversation. In addition, when we see something, we need to say something.  

We are so appreciative of our students, parents, and community. Thank you for your continued partnership!

Educationally,

The Grandville Administrative Team