There are things bigger than politics, state legislators declared on the floor of Michigan’s state House, as legislation to implement school safety requirements and mental health assessment standards passed Tuesday evening with bipartisan support.

It’s been just over three years since by another student who brought a gun to school and opened fire on the school community. Just as the loved ones of Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; Justin Shilling, 17; and Madisyn Baldwin, 17, will never forget the pain of the Nov. 30, 2021 killings, neither will lawmakers, Rep. Luke Meerman (R-Coopersville) told members of the state House.

“We must show the people of Michigan, we as lawmakers can come together and produce solutions that address real need in the state,” Meerman, who is a sponsor of the bill package, said. “From where I stand, these bills are long overdue. I’m grateful to vote yes on these bills today.”

Michigan state Rep. Luke Meerman (R-Coopersville) speaks in support of a school safety package on the House floor on Dec. 10, 2024. | Photo: Anna Liz NicholsMeerman, along with Rep. Nancy DeBoer (R-Holland) on House Bills and which would replace the with a School Safety and Mental Health Commission housed in the Department of State Police.

The would-be-replaced School Safety Commission was created under Gov. Rick Snyder, after the deadly Parkland High School shooting in Florida in 2018 where a 19-year-old opened fire, killing 17 people at the school. The commission has been charged with evaluating safety measures in Michigan schools and making recommendations for improvements.

Codifying a School Safety and Mental Health Commission is being pursued by lawmakers in recognition of . The commission would specifically examine and make recommendations to improve school safety measures and mental health support, with members consisting of experts in law enforcement, education, mental health, school threat assessments and community programming with youth, as well as having a current student or recent high school graduate on the commission.

House Bill and House Bill received 89-19 votes, passing with widespread bipartisan support and with two members not voting.

Amongst the “no” votes was Republican Rep. Josh Schriver who represents Oxford and voted against every bill in the package Tuesday

Under House Bills and , all schools in Michigan would be required to adopt uniform terminology for emergency response starting in the 2026-2027 school year.

Michigan State Police would be mandated under the legislation to create language all schools use, so terms like “lockdown” and “shelter in place” mean the same thing across the board and law enforcement can respond accordingly should there be an emergency.

House Bill received a 94-15 and House Bill received a 93-16 with one lawmaker not voting.

In the face of the threat of school shootings, it’s important to note that , Rep. Kelly Breen (D-Novi) told lawmakers Tuesday. But students don’t always feel safe while they’re trying to learn.

“A few years ago, my daughter asked me one of the worst questions a child could bring a parent, ‘Mama, what do I do if my teacher tells me to run and I can’t find my little brother?’,” Breen told members of the state House. “No parent ever wants to answer that.”

Michigan was once again rattled by another school shooting in 2023, when three students on Michigan State University’s campus were killed by a gunman the evening before Valentine’s Day, Breen lamented.

After the tragedy at MSU, lawmakers passed several gun violence reforms including and implementing .

And as survivors of school shootings in Michigan and the families of the students the state has lost demand justice and change, Breen said lawmakers have the opportunity to stand alongside them.

Breen’s bill in the package, House Bill , requires all schools to create a behavior threat assessment and management team by October 1, 2026. The team would have to define prohibited or concerning behaviors that are indicative that a member of the school community might hurt themselves or others. The team would also be expected to perform monitoring for such behaviors, creating reporting mechanisms for members of the school community to identify concerning behavior and facilitate the school’s responses to intervene.

The team is required to have a school administrator, a mental health professional and a school resource officer or another member of law enforcement.

While the other bills in the package cleared the politically divided state House with the vast majority of votes, House Bill cleared with a 57-51 vote, with one lawmaker not voting.

Rep. Gina Johnsen (R-Odessa) unsuccessfully proposed an amendment that would have allowed non public schools to opt out of creating behavior threat assessment and management teams and would have specified that members of the clergy could be eligible to fulfill the role of the mental health professional on such teams if non public schools wanted to participate.

The bills will now head over to the state Senate in the final days of the legislative session.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan J. Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com.

In 12 days, it will be three years since the deadly Oxford High School shooting robbed Michigan of the lives of four students. Parents of the victims of the shooting gathered Monday in Oxford for a news conference to call on the state to open an independent investigation into the events that led to the shooting.

The gunman, who was a student at the school when he opened fired on students and educators on Nov. 30, 2021, was at the end of 2023 for the deaths of four students. The shooter’s parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were also held legally responsible for the shooting in a landmark criminal prosecution for their role in making it possible for their 15-year-old son to commit a mass shooting. The parents were sentenced earlier this year to 10 to 15 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter.

But as other families prepare for Thanksgiving and start early Christmas shopping, parents of the shooting victims are imploring the state to investigate other entities — namely the school’s leadership — into what their role was in not preventing the tragedy.

“We are not going anywhere. We will do whatever it takes to drive change, because it’s not a matter of if a school shooting happens again, but when,” said Steve St. Juliana, father of Hana St. Julianna, a student who was killed in the Oxford shooting at age 14.

It’s not enough that the shooter and his parents have been held criminally responsible. The parents of the victims said much more needs to be done to understand what happened at Oxford and how other families can be spared the pain of another school shooting in the future.

had the school responded appropriately to the shooter as a potential threat as he gave several warning signs, asserted one investigation by Guidepost Solutions which concluded in 2023. Nearly half of the individuals investigators requested to talk to did not speak with investigators. Lawyers for Oxford Community Schools, as well as the teachers union discouraged school employees from cooperating in the investigation, the report said.

To implement real change, not simply gun safety legislation as the Michigan Legislature has enacted, the state must find out exactly what happened that permitted a 15-year-old student to open fire on his classmates and teachers at school where the community should be safe, said Buck Myre, father of Tate Myre who was killed in the shooting at age 16.

“This has always been about change — period — nothing else. It’s time for our state government to investigate this. Stop hiding; stop making excuses. A Michigan public school was the scene of the shooting. Kids’ lives were lost. Kids were shot. A teacher was shot. Every kid in school that day has a shooting badge, a shooting badge that they will heavily carry on their chest for the rest of their lives,” Myre said. “Don’t we want to learn from this?”

There is an epidemic of school shootings that are killing children, St. Juliana said. And if the state doesn’t want more carnage, state agencies need to work together, stop pointing fingers, and get to work on a revelatory investigation.

“We should not have to be sitting up here repeatedly saying, ‘Do a damn investigation.’ I’ll paraphrase the governor of Michigan ‘fix the damn system,’” St. Juliana said, referring to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s signature call to “fix the damn roads.”

“Forget about the roads. Keep our kids safe,” St. Juliana said.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel responded to the parents’ requests for a state investigation, pointing out that her office has offered several times to perform an investigation and the Oxford School Board, Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office and Oakland County Sheriff’s Office have rejected her requests.

The parents of Tate Myre, Hana St. Juliana, Justin Shilling and Madisyn Baldwin are not simply calling for further prosecutions, but for the state to examine the systems that could prevent a future shooting. Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said in an emailed statement after the press conference Monday that a comprehensive, state-led investigation has the potential to provide that.

“We are not aware of any mechanism for our office to refer a matter to the Attorney General’s office when it has not been presented to our office,” McDonald said. “And what the families are asking for is much broader. We are not aware of any action needed by my office to activate the Attorney General’s authority, but we will do everything possible to enable such an investigation. And my office will fully cooperate with any such investigation.”

Nessel said the protocol for her office to perform an investigation is to respect local authority, not use her jurisdiction to supersede local or county level criminal investigations. She added that the Attorney General Department will only join or take on leadership of a criminal investigation or prosecution after local authorities have referred the case to her office.

Both McDonald and Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard have her personal phone number, Nessel said, but neither have requested the attorney general’s involvement, although she is still willing to investigate

“We share in the families’ fatigue over the constant finger-pointing and scapegoating in these investigations and wish our offers to participate at any level had been accepted years ago for my office to conduct an investigation,” Nessel said. “At this point, nearly three years after the tragedy [it] will definitely be more difficult than if it had been allowed to begin when our earliest or repeated offers were initially made.”

McDonald sent a letter and legal opinion on Oct. 9 to St. Juliana in response to his and other families asking for criminal charges against Oxford District members. In the documents, which were provided to the Michigan Advance by St. Juliana, McDonald says Nessel has the authority to perform an investigation without an invitation.

“The Attorney General’s Office holds a wide range of powers, which include the investigatory powers that were held at common law. In addition to the investigatory powers, the Attorney General’s office is equipped with its own Criminal Investigations Division — meaning it not only has the authority, but also the resources to investigate potential violations of Michigan law,” McDonald wrote to St. Juliana.

Parents on Monday talked about the Attorney General’s Office’s ability to subpoena some of the individuals within Oxford Schools who did not talk with Guidepost Solutions’ investigation. Nessel addressed what she called confusion over what her office is allowed to do. She said her subpoena power can only be triggered when there is to believe criminal acts were committed.

In McDonald’s letter to St. Juliana, she says although parents have requested charges be filed against individuals at Oxford Schools, she has “not seen evidence that would allow me to bring charges against any of those individuals.”

“… neither my office nor Guidepost can conduct a criminal investigation,” McDonald said in the letter to St. Juliana. “I can only make decisions based on the information provided to me by law enforcement, and Guidepost must rely on the cooperation of individuals who have information to share that information.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan J. Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on and .