Midland Public School Management Center. (Daily News Archive photo)

In March 2020, an active shooting training was planned to be held at Midland High School on Saturday, after which COVID caused all school buildings in Michigan to close and the exercise was shelved.

Michael Sharrow, the head of MPS, said that the exercise will still take place at some point, depending on the COVID figures. Earlier on Tuesday afternoon, unfortunately, the reason for this incident was reminded that Ethan Crumbley, a 15-year-old sophomore at the time, allegedly shot and killed four students at Oxford High School, about 100 miles southeast of Midland, and wounded them. Seven other people were killed.

According to the Associated Press, Crubley was charged as an adult on Wednesday with murder, terrorism and other charges. Investigators said that Crubley was carrying a semi-automatic pistol that his father bought last week.

"Every time there is a (school shooting), you are very afraid of the children getting bad ideas (doing the same thing)," Sharo told the Daily News on Tuesday. "(After the shooting), we immediately notified the principal to ensure that we followed the safety rules.

"This is a tragic day for everyone in America, but it must be in our backyard," he continued.

As far as the safety of the MPS school building is concerned, Sharrow said that when he was hired in 2013, he observed that some schools were open on warm days, which he believed was a symptom of the overall lack of safety. Two years later, the main MPS bond passed by voters included school safety as one of its four pillars.

Since then, all school buildings have been updated to have only one public entrance, which can be seen by school office personnel and they have the ability to shut out people they consider suspicious. Any non-staff personnel entering the building cannot go further without the office personnel unlocking the internal entrance.

"If there is no camera monitoring, you can't approach our building," Sharrow said.

In addition, all MPS employees and school resource officers have received ALICE (Alert, Lockout, Notification, Counterattack, Evacuation) training, an active shooter preparation program that has been taught to approximately 19 million people in all 50 states. The law requires each school to conduct 3 safety drills a year.

MPS also implemented the Raptor Visitor Management System to thoroughly screen visitors to the school, and reinforced classroom doors with 3/8 inch thick steel barricades to prevent active shooters from entering.

Despite this, Sharrow admits that even the strongest school cannot guarantee to stop shooters.

"The truth is that almost every school has these (various security measures) in place, but it still happens (in Oxford)," he said.

MPS itself experienced a school shooting in a parking lot outside Dow High School in March 2007. A 17-year-old male was not a student there. He shot and killed a 17-year-old Dow female student four times and then shot himself in the head. The hostess survived.

Sharo said the school must work hard to take measures to prevent shootings from the beginning.

"We put all of this on the preparation side," Sharrow said. "But the truth is that in almost every (school shooting) case, there are still people who are not in good spirits."

He pointed out that MPS has four school resource officers from the Midland Police Department. An important part of their work is to build relationships and trust with students, faculty and staff. This trust makes it possible for the SRO to be warned of someone planning to cause harm-according to Sharrow, this actually happened at MPS a few years ago.

"A few years ago, a student hid a gun near the campus. Another student informed the SRO about it, and the vice principal was able to go out and find the gun," Sharrow explained.

He said that another way for schools to cooperate with law enforcement agencies is that when the police or sheriff’s deputies conduct health checks at students’ homes, they may issue a “handle with care” notice to the student principal. Without revealing any details, this will let the school know that the student has spent a stressful time at home and needs additional support from the school.

Similarly, the MPS Education and Management Committee sent out an email on Tuesday night to encourage the MPS community to use available resources when they feel they need help.

"In our state, schools are participating in the OK2Say program. In addition, there are mental health resources designed to support the various challenges experienced by people of all ages. We encourage our students, families, and communities to use these resources when needed ."

The email also recommends resources for families who want to talk to their children about the shooting: the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) website and the Johns Hopkins University K-2 and 3-5 school safety website.

This email begins with a message to support the Oxford community.

"Today, we express our deepest sympathy and support to the students, staff and families of Oxford Community Schools," the email read. "After Oxford High School reported on the active shooter situation earlier, we can't begin to imagine the pain the Oxford community felt tonight. Our hearts are weighed down by the weight of this loss, and we pray for those who are injured."

The Associated Press reported that the authorities said they were searching Crubley's cell phone, school videos and social media posts.

"The most insightful and motivated person can't speak," Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said in a news conference late Tuesday.

The delegates arrived at the school at lunchtime and arrested Crumbley in the hallway within a few minutes. Bouchard said that when the delegates approached, he raised his hands in the air.

Bouchard said the boy's father bought the 9mm Sig Sauer used in the filming on Friday. Bouchard said that he did not know why this man bought a semi-automatic pistol. His son has been posting photos and practicing shooting.

The four students killed were identified as 16-year-old Tate Myre, 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana, 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin and 17-year-old Justin Shilling, who died on Wednesday.

Bouchard said Mayer died in a patrol car when a deputy tried to take him to the emergency room.

Bouchard said that a teacher with a bruised shoulder left the hospital, but seven students between the ages of 14 and 17 were hospitalized overnight with gunshot wounds.

Bouchard said that there were still seven bullets in the gun Krubley carried when he surrendered.

Deputy Sheriff Mike McCabe said Crubley’s parents advised their son not to talk to investigators. He added that the police must obtain permission from the teenagers’ parents or guardians to talk to them.

McCabe downplayed the importance of what happened in early November, when a deer's head was thrown off the school roof, which he said was "completely unrelated" to the shooting. This incident prompted school administrators to send two letters to parents on the school website stating that they were responding to rumors that the school was threatened, but they did not find out.

Bouchard said that the student detained in the shooting had not clashed with his department before, and he was not aware of any disciplinary records at the school.

“This is part of our investigation: to determine what happened before this incident and whether certain signs were missed, how they were missed and why,” he said.

The school district said in a statement that all schools will be closed for the rest of the week.

Dan Chalk was born in Midland and graduated from Midland High School in 1989 and Adrian College in 1994. He has six years of teaching career in the Overseas Peace Corps and Michigan State, which slightly overlaps with his journalism career. He has been working for the Midland Daily News since 1998.