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Oxford Community Schools Superintendent Ken Weaver resigns
Weaver, who did not attend the meeting, said that he had been placed on medical leave through next year. Tonight's meeting was just less than a year from the mass shooting at Oxford High School which killed four students on Nov. 30, 2021.
MONDAY NEWS HIT - Two former members of the Oxford School Board say the district failed in its effort to protect students and have not been transparent about the steps it took before four students were murdered in 2022.
Former Board President Tom Donnelly and former Board Treasurer Korey Bailed who both recently resigned from their positions plan to come forward with allegations against the school district Monday. Both resigned out of frustration, a release said.
"I’m tired of being kicked in the teeth by people who just want to know the truth," said Donnelly. "If Oxford Strong means anything, it has to be more than just enduring the pain. It has to include being able to handle the truth."
A news release from the two said that the community had been led to believe the district "did everything right and a bad thing still happened."
"But they have not been given all the facts."
Along with Donnelly and Bailey, the two will be joined by former Investigative Reporter Jim Kiertzner and Attorney Bill Seikaly. They'll discuss the details at 1 p.m. Nov. 28.
Four students - Tate Myre, Justin Shilling, Madisyn Baldwin, and Hana St. Juliana - were killed after a teenager later identified as Ethan Crumbley went on a rampage on Nov. 30 last year. He's already pled guilty to murder charges.
However, much of the drama that has played on in the fallout of the mass shooting has happened at the district, which has been the center of controversy over claims it hasn't been open about steps it took to protect students. It also repeatedly declined offers for a public investigation by the attorney general.
"This has gone on long enough. I couldn’t take the Oxford stonewalling and lack of accountability any more," said Bailey. "They never though a school shooting would happen here and they failed to take action to prevent it."
Along with Monday's press conference, both ex-officials also met with members of the community over the weekend.
The one-year anniversary of the tragedy is this Wednesday.
Michigan speed limit increases lead to more crashes
After Michigan raised its speed limit from 70 mph to 75 mph on some of its rural freeways, the state recorded an increase in fatal crashes. According to a study out of Michigan State University, just a 5 mph increase saw a 5% increase in crashes that had all levels of injury severity.
Other factors that affect the frequencies of crashes is traffic volume, road widths, and the composition of the traffic.
Michigan raised the maximum speed limit on approximately 600 miles of freeways in 2017. The maximum speed limits were also raised for truck traffic from 60 to 65 mph.
"The results show that the locations where the speed limits were increased experienced a 5% increase in crashes, while a marginal reduction in crashes was observed where speed limits did not increase," the study's authors said.
Parents mourn after son killed in Lincoln Park crash caused by speeding teen driver
An 8-year-old girl and two teens were killed last Thursday night when a speeding SUV flipped and hit a tree in a Lincoln Park residential area. The parents of one of the victims say they are still grieving the death of their 18-year-old son Kevin Washington.
"I didn't want to believe that was my son," said the victim's mother, Sarah Shipp. The crash happened on November 17th at Cicotte near Porter in a Lincoln Park neighborhood. Kevin's mother says she grew worried when her son never came home that night.
"As soon as I got wind that he wasn't there. I began to search the internet," Sarah said. "Around 2:30, that's when I saw a young man driving an equinox, the same vehicle my son got in when he left."
An 8-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy were also killed in the crash. A 14-year-old girl allegedly behind the wheel and a 13-year-old girl in the passenger seat survived with critical injuries. The SUV in question allegedly belonged to the family of the 15-year-old boy. A GoFundMe has been created to help pay for funeral costs. Click HERE to donate.
Parents mourn after son killed in Lincoln Park crash caused by speeding teen driver
Three people were killed in the tragic crash after the SUV they were in flipped over and hit a tree in Lincoln Park.
Peek inside Amazon's warehouse for Cyber Monday
FOX 2 is getting a special look inside one of Amazon's warehouses as Cyber Monday gears up for another busy holiday shopping season.
The distribution center in Sterling Heights is located at Mound Road where the company says it will process about 110,000 packages a day.
"Every package that enters this facility is processed and sent out within 24 hours," said one employee. The packages will move from one side of the massive facility to the other, eventually ending up in a bag that is taken by truck to someone's home.
FOX 2 will show several other components of the center later Monday.
Body found in trunk of suspect car after driver got in shoot-out with Dearborn police
A wild scene that unfolded in east Dearborn Sunday afternoon remains under investigation after a dead body was found in the trunk of a car that fled police during an attempted traffic stop. The suspect driver died after exchanging gunfire with Dearborn police, authorities said.
A traffic stop was first initiated by Dearborn police near the border with Detroit at Tireman and Wyoming after officers spotted a Dodge Charger involved in an endangered missing person investigation.
But when police tried pulling over the Charger, the driver fled before crashing into a red-brick home. As police approached, the suspect and officers exchanged gunfire. Police said the suspect was fatally shot. Another person that was injured from the incident was also taken to the hospital.
While officers investigated the scene, they found a dead body in the trunk of the suspect vehicle. The remains have yet to be identified, Michigan State Police said on Twitter. MSP said the investigation may have ties to another out-of-state homicide investigation.
Body found in trunk of suspect car after driver got in shoot-out with Dearborn police
The driver died while exchanging gunfire with police. They had fled a traffic stop before crashing into a home in a wild scene that unfolded Sunday afternoon.
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Daily Forecast
Our wet weekend will begin to dry out Monday with cloudy conditions in the 40s. More dry conditions are expected Tuesday before rain continues Wednesday.
What else we're watching
- Belleville High School won their second straight Division 1 title in football after handling Caledonia over the weekend at Ford Field. It was a big day for a team that is mired by controversy over its coach, who was banned from participating in high school football for two years.
- Warming shelters are open in Detroit from now until March. For families and single women, go to the Mack Warming Center or Woodrow Wilson Street. For single men, the Third Street Warming Center will be open.
- Gas prices are down another 17 cents in Michigan, the second straight week of falling prices at the pump. Those decreases aren't little since Michigan drivers were paying well over $4 a gallon last month. Currently, it costs an average of $3.64 a gallon for unleaded gas.
- A judge has denied a bid for another trial in the Whitmer kidnappings case. The federal judge had overseen the trial of Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr during a tense prosecution of the two men. They were later convicted of conspiring to kidnap the Michigan governor.
- The University of Michigan is now ranked 2 in the AP poll. They'll need to get through Purdue in the Big Ten Championship however if they plan to go to the College Football Playoff.
'Gaslighting' is Merriam-Webster's word of 2022
"Gaslighting" — mind manipulating, grossly misleading, downright deceitful — is Merriam-Webster's word of the year.
Lookups for the word on merriam-webster.com increased 1,740% in 2022 over the year before. But something else happened. There wasn't a single event that drove significant spikes in the curiosity, as it usually goes with the chosen word of the year.
The gaslighting was pervasive.
"It’s a word that has risen so quickly in the English language, and especially in the last four years, that it actually came as a surprise to me and to many of us," said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster's editor at large, in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press ahead of Monday's unveiling.