The Michigan State Board of Education voted to call upon the Michigan Legislature to require and fund an independent review of the 2021 Oxford High School shooting.
The vote, which took place on Tuesday, comes after requests from parents of Tate Myre, Hana St. Juliana, Madisyn Baldwin and Justin Shilling – the four students who were killed.
Justin Shilling's father, Craig Shilling, welcomed the move but was skeptical about what comes next.
"It's a good feeling, I guess," he said. "Definitely something that we've been asking for for a long time. It's unfortunate that it took two and a half years to get here, but it's nice to finally see something going on up there and getting one of our things checked off the list. But we don't even know if it will go through the legislature, so I don't even know if we're gonna get it. Just because a state board is asking for it now doesn't mean it's actually going to happen. Their influence does have some weight, so I'm hopeful it will."
WATCH: Craig Shilling responds to state board of education calling for independent review
As part of the vote, board members also requested that the legislature to make previously approved funding for children's mental health and school safety recurring. That includes requesting that suicide and threat assessments be part of every school emergency operation plan and make threat assessment training available.
Parents of the four teens shared their thoughts at a May 21 board work sessions after being invited by State Superintendent Dr. Michael F. Rice.
Watch: Craig Shilling, father of Justin Shilling, shares why he wanted to create a foundation in son's memory
“Parents of Oxford students who died in this terrible tragedy have made it clear they want an independent state review of the shooting and events before and after,” State Board of Education President Dr. Pamela Pugh said in a statement. “I’m very grateful and thankful we were able to hear from the parents of the victims of Oxford. We owe it to the parents to do what we can to have the mass shooting thoroughly reviewed so that schools can learn from what happened and Oxford parents can get more answers.”
“Much has been done in the last two and a half years to improve school safety and children’s mental health in the state,” Rice said in a statement. “More needs to be done. Large increases in funding for school safety and children’s mental health, more than 1,000 additional helping professionals in schools across the state, new gun safety laws, and increased attention to children’s mental health make for safer and healthier schools for students and staff. That said, more needs to be done, and the state board’s resolution is in the spirit of continuing to improve the safety and security of our schools.”
The shooting in November 2021 killed the four students, injured six others and a teacher. The shooter pled guilty and was sentenced to life in prison. His parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were each convicted on four counts of involuntary manslaughter in the case this year.
They were each sentenced to 10-15 years in prison after the conviction.
