By Adam Schrader
Members of the community embrace during a prayer service and candlelight vigil at Bridgewood Church in Clarkston, Michigan, a day after a 15-year-old student killed four classmates before surrendering to police at Oxford High School. Photo by Nic Antaya/EPA-EFE
Dec. 13 (UPI) -- More than 10,000 people have signed a petition formed by a group of Michigan students calling for online classes after the revelation of "copycat threats" in the wake of the Oxford High School shooting.
Ethan Crumbley, 15, has been charged with shooting dead four of his fellow students and injuring eight others, including a 47-year-old teacher, on Nov. 30 after bringing a weapon allegedly purchased by his father to Oxford High School.
Since then, students in neighboring school districts have raised concerns about copycat threats that have been made. Students in the West Bloomfield School District were sent home Monday morning and school administrators canceled all after-school activities due to concerns of such threats.
The latest petition, formed by the groups Sunrise Movement Oakland County and March for Our Lives Bloomfield, seeks to garner more than 15,000 signatures to move classes online for Oakland County schools until at least the end of the fall semester. School districts within Oakland County serve 210,000 students, including those at West Bloomfield and Oxford high schools.
"Oxford High School experienced the tragic loss of four students due to a school shooting on Tuesday, November 30th. Since that day, there has been a continuous circulation of threats made to schools within Oakland County," the petition reads.
"These widespread threats have induced fear and taken an emotional toll on all students, making in-person learning essentially useless."
The students claim that the move to online classes is necessary to serve the "mental, physical, and emotional health" of the students.
The petition calls for Oakland Schools, a regional service agency that supports districts in the county, to release "detailed and concrete plans for keeping students safe" before resuming in-person classes.
"Threats to schools cannot be taken lightly and our administrators need to prioritize the safety of students," the petition reads.
In the aftermath of the deadly November shooting, the Oxford Community Schools website added a link to "Resources for Dealing with Trauma." The school district has noted that all events planned at Oxford High School remain canceled until further notice.
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