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Statement from Thomas E. Donnelly Jr., President of the Oxford Community Schools Board of Education
Dear Wildcat Community,
As your Board President, I wanted to take the opportunity to address the horrific shooting that occurred at our high school last week. The unspeakable tragedy we are just beginning to process and the immense trauma and grief we’re all experiencing has left us reeling and in shock. I take responsibility for not communicating sooner, but we too have been focused on the immediate crisis response and frankly we too are in shock and grieving as well.
In this moment of crisis, we must take time to begin to fully understand this tragedy and get answers to the understandable questions many of us have about what happened and why. As your Board President, I want you to know I support full transparency and having a third-party review of all the events that led up to and occurred on Nov. 30.
As a community, we are heartbroken. I want you to know there is professional help and healing opportunities available for students, staff and families. Professionally trained crisis response specialists are working with the school district to provide ongoing mental health support and there is more information about these services on the district’s website. I strongly encourage our community members to connect with these professionally trained crisis response specialists, therapists and counselors. Having the appropriate support will play a critical role as our students, families, staff and entire Wildcat community begin the healing process and will be a key element of gradually reopening schools while supporting our staff, students and community.
Over the past several days, many of us have come together to cry, hug, laugh and cry some more. The rollercoaster of emotions we are all feeling is a normal response to crisis. Our community is experiencing pain and suffering, and many are expressing understandable anger and frustration. It’s never been more important for our entire Wildcat community to be united and support one another. We’ve seen what happens when our community comes together, and we remain Oxford StrOng.
Working together, I sincerely believe our community can emerge from this dark moment stronger. We owe it to each other to reach out like never before. Our strong community spirit and compassion is our light in this time of darkness. Please continue to pray for the victims, the families and all of our neighbors who are suffering. Your school board stands ready to serve our students, families and community at this difficult time and we will be in touch with additional information and updates in the days ahead.
Since Tuesday you have all been in our thoughts and prayers and we encourage all of you who are hurting to utilize the support services available to get through this so we can stay Oxford StrOng.
Sincerely,
Thomas E. Donnelly Jr.
President, Oxford School Board
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