Michigan AG offers to do independent investigation of Oxford school officials actions

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has offered her department's services to do an independent investigation of how Oxford High School officials handled the days leading up to the mass shooting at the high school.

In two tweets Sunday morning, Nessel responded to Oxford Superintendent Tim Throne's announcement Saturday that the district will hire an outside investigator to look at its actions.

"We have reached out to the attorney for the Oxford Community School District and have offered the services of the Michigan Department of Attorney General to conduct a full and comprehensive review of the 11/30/21 shooting and the events leading up to it," Nessel tweeted, responding to a tweet about a Free Press story. "Our attorneys and special agents are uniquely qualified to perform an investigation of this magnitude and are prepared to perform an extensive investigation and inquiry to answer the many questions the community has regarding this tragedy."

Nessel told the Free Press she has been in contact all week long with Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald, who, Nessel said, "has made it pretty clear that a comprehensive investigation of the school (needs) to be done."

Her office is best situated to do that review, Nessel said, because it houses both civil and criminal attorneys and investigators. That means the AG can look at not only whether any criminal laws were broken, but whether there were civil infractions. Her office also has experience looking at policies and procedures to make sure all were followed and those in place are the best plans.

That would benefit not only Oxford but also other school districts across the state.

The investigation should be done by a truly independent agency, not a private law firm hired by the district, Nessel said, because a private law firm often is more about "protecting their client." In this case, that would be the school district.

"We want to answer all the questions the parents have about this," Nessel said. That includes trying to figure out the facts of the situation.

"There's a lot of information out there," Nessel said. "I don't know at this point what is true or not true."

Nessel's office sent an email to the school district's attorney on Saturday offering services. She said that as of midafternoon Sunday, she hadn't heard back, but wasn't upset about it.

"They should sit down and talk about it," she said.

On Saturday, Throne sent a letter to parents about the actions of the school district in the runup to Tuesday's shooting.

He wrote that Oxford High School counselors did not believe the 15-year-old charged with killing four classmates and wounding seven others was at risk of harming others. He also wrote that Ethan Crumbley appeared calm in an office meeting with his parents on Tuesday, the morning of the shootings, and claimed a graphic drawing depicting blood and a bullet was a part of a video game idea he was designing. 

Superintendent: Oxford schools to hire third-party to review actions before shootings

Michigan:7 students charged in Wayne County for making threats or bringing a weapon to school

The letter also contained a pledge to conduct an independent investigation. It comes after numerous parents and community members have questioned whether school officials could have intervened more aggressively in Crumbley's behavior.

"Our community and our families deserve a full, transparent accounting of what occurred," Throne wrote. "We also plan to make regular updates to our families and community." 

Contact David Jesse: 313-222-8851 or djesse@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @reporterdavidj. Subscribe to the Detroit Free Press.