NOVEMBER 24 • 2022 | 13

E

arlier this fall, Jan Goldstein Frank
of Bloomfield Hills sat in the
auditorium of Bloomfield Hills
High School with other employees, staff

Jan
Goldstein
Frank

and contractors for a training
seminar on how to respond in
the event of an active shooter
on campus.
The longtime forensics
coach was grateful to receive
“
ALICE” training (Alert,

Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate),
named for its easy-to-remember acronym
of potentially lifesaving measures that
educators must follow if they ever find
themselves in a mass shooting.
While she was grateful for the training
as she pondered a new school year, she
said the fear of ever having to be in such a
situation could be avoided if the state’s gun
laws had more teeth.
“The ALICE training was one of the
saddest days of my life,” reflected the
Bloomfield Hills resident. “I don’t know
how any human could effectively execute
the training under the extreme stress and
pressure of being in a life-threatening
situation such as having an active shooter
present in a school.
“We were taught how to use a staple gun
to properly clear shards of glass from a
window so students could escape without
being cut. You think to yourself, ‘Why am
I here?’ I’m here with other teachers taking
this course because this country refuses to
figure out a way to regulate the possession
of firearms and particularly ones that are
weapons of war.
“We are educators tasked to take care
of children,” she continued. “Society
is layering this active shooter training
on teachers — a population that is
among some of the most overworked
and undervalued people in our entire
community. It’s absurd, it’s like putting a
band-aid over a gunshot wound.”

THE IMPACT OF THE
OXFORD SHOOTING
On Oct. 24, the teenager charged with
killing four fellow students at Oxford High
School and wounding six others, including
a teacher on Nov. 30, 2021, pleaded guilty
to his crimes in Oakland County Circuit
Court. His parents, who purchased the
9mm pistol for him just four days before
the shooting, are charged with multiple
manslaughter counts.
In the months that have followed
since the shooting, grassroots, political
and organizational leaders in the Jewish
and general community admit that even
though they are optimistic that legislative
reforms on gun safety are within reach
due to a shift to a Democratic majority
in Lansing, our state and nation will still

suffer through mass shootings.
Efforts to pass gun safety laws, including
safety storage mandates, red flag laws,
magazine limits, enforcing the illegality
of private gun sales and eliminating
gun access to domestic abusers, need
to be compounded with beefed-up
mental health resources and behavioral
assessments.
In interviews with the JN, all sources
acknowledged that gun reform must
happen within the parameters of the
Second Amendment. They stated most
people, whether they own guns or not,
weigh on the side of common sense, and
said guns should not be taken away from
responsible owners.

VIOLENT THREATS CONTINUE
This fall saw no letup to violent threats to
our students, and all the while school and
law enforcement officials state they are in
constant communication with one another.
During the first week of November, two
bomb threats were called into Frankel
Jewish Academy in two days.
In an unrelated incident, a 14-year-old
teen from Oxford Township was arrested
Oct. 12 after posting photos of guns on
social media and claiming he would kill
Jewish people, according to reports from
the Oakland County Sherriff’s Office.
An FBI investigation later found the teen
was in possession of a handgun. The teen
was the third person arrested that week
in Oakland County for making violent
threats.
West Bloomfield Police Chief Michael
Patton said all threats to schools are taken

Michael
Patton

seriously, adding that his
investigative team would
rather check out 99 false leads
if it means that one real threat
can be abated to save lives.
“No one’s crystal ball is
perfect,” Patton said. “But
often after a shooting tragedy,
people will later say they suspected
the perpetrator had issues or seemed
problematic but didn’t want to come
forward to say anything because they
didn’t want to bother the police. There
have been formal studies on this on
how some shootings could have been
prevented. That is why we still promote
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