Oxford High School Shooter Should Have Been Sent Home: Officials Say

It’s already been a year since the Oxford High School shootout when a sixteen-year-old former student of Oxford high started a shootout at his school after allegedly hearing disturbing voices in his head. 

The boy’s name is Ethan Crumbley. A day before the mass shootout, he showed signs of being mentally unstable. According to the Oxford High School policy, he should have been sent back to his home.

During an interview in the courtroom, two former school officials who were on the school board during the incident finally came clean and told the media that the ill boy should have been sent back home as a precautionary step under the ‘Oxford Threat Assessment Policy.’

What Was The Statement From The Two Former School Board Officials?

According to the media reports, it is clear that the officials are the former president Tom Donnelly and the former treasurer of Oxford High, Korey Bailey. Both of them finally opened up about the incident. They told the media about the mishandling of the incident on behalf of the school side.

According to them, Oxford High School has a threat assessment policy known as the ‘8400 Policy.’ The Policy was made per the United States Secret Service guidelines. It was a critical preventative step in case a student felt mentally unstable or could cause harm to other students.

But unfortunately, the school never used the Policy nearly two times, even after the shootout at Oxford High School.

The whistleblower officials also held the district responsible for their carelessness as it was their duty to provide adequate training to the teachers at the school, which was unfortunately ignored for a long time.

As per Bailey’s statement, it was clear that the Policy had been in the school’s official site and system for as long as 2011. Still, no attention was given to the Policy even after the shootout incidents.

Thus both Bailey and Donnelly alleged that the shootout was an entirely preventable disaster that the school had utterly failed to stop nearly two times.

Oxford’s Attempt To Stop Investigations

As per the former Oxford High President, Korey Bailey’s statement, it is also clear that Oxford High School had not paid any close attention to the ‘SAEBR Survey’, which is conducted during freshman as well as softmore years of high school as a way to access the threat posed by a person.

Like most students, Ethan Crumbley had also taken the test nearly twice. However, the school still needed to pay more attention to his score to maintain safety.

Although the information regarding whether the school had been not paying attention to the survey properly is not yet confirmed, it is clear that Oxford high is still very uncooperative regarding the shootout case.

More: The University Of Virginia Shooting: 3 Football Players Shot Dead 

What Is The ‘8400 Policy’?

According to the official site of Oxford High School, the 8400 policy is a threat assessment policy introduced in the school system in 2011. It contained essential instructions regarding the handling of a student who can cause serious harm to other people and themselves.

The instructions were as follows,

1. In case any student is showing expression or intent to cause serious harm toward other students, the school coordinators and teachers must immediately report the incidents to the school president.

2. The President must quickly arrange a complete threat assessment team in the school after they get the information regarding the student or students who are engaging in concerning communications and have the potential to cause harm to other students.

3. The threat assessment team must contain the school principal, counselor, psychologist, student resource officer, and any mental health provider who would try to handle the student in case of threatening behavior.

There is the ‘8400 policy’ that had already been incorporated in the Oxford high school systems.

But, unfortunately, it was never followed seriously by the school officials themselves, thus leading to a tragic mass shootout incident on the 30th of November in 2021 and the death of four prominent students from the school.