Former Oxford school board member reacts to independent report
OXFORD, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - In light of the final independent investigation into the Oxford High School shooting, a former school board member is speaking out.
"Guidepost said in their report they ran into roadblock after roadblock, from people not cooperating, from union officials telling people not to cooperate, just unnecessary roadblocks," said former Oxford schools treasurer Korey Bailey.
Bailey announced last year that he and former school board president Tom Donnelly resigned because the district wasn't being transparent with the public after the shooting that took the lives of Tate Myre, Hana St. Juliana, Madisyn Baldwin, Justin Schilling, and injured seven others.
Bailey said the report outlines his prior claims that the district failed to adhere to its policies and that district officials were not cooperating with the investigation.
"The people who have kept us quiet, Tom and I have attended countless board meetings asking them to release us from the attorney-client privilege, the open meetings act, which would allow us to have spoken freely during our depositions, and we had to sit there and say we can't answer that," Bailey said.
Bailey's attorney, William Seikaly, said the Guidepost Solutions investigation confirms that Bailey and Donnelly were trying to be transparent but were not allowed to legally.
"If you look at back what Tom and Korey said at their press conference over a year ago, it's in this report, the failure to follow policies and procedures," Seikaly said.
Moving forward, Bailey said his work isn't done yet with Oxford schools in terms of implementing the threat assessments recommended by the report and already in place.
"I want to be an advocate on how to implement it and take that just as serious as we do fire drills."
On Thursday, Nov. 2, Guidepost Solutions is holding a town hall at Oxford High School to allow the public to ask any questions they may have about the findings of the investigation. The time slots are 1 p.m., 3:30 p.m., and 6 p.m.
