Four months after the deadly shooting at Oxford High School, state lawmakers are reviving a 4-year-old plan to make schools safer. The bipartisan House School Safety Task Force created after the Oxford rampage recently issued its initial recommendations, and more are expected in the coming weeks.

The phone call from her son’s school was alarming. The assistant principal told her to come to the school immediately. But when Lisa Manwell arrived at Pioneer Middle School in Plymouth, Michigan, her son wasn’t sick or injured. He was sitting calmly in the principal’s office.

How can University of Michigan bolster safety and security on campus in the wake of last week’s shooting at Michigan State University? It starts with self-evaluation, said Deputy Chief Melissa Overton of UM’s Division of Public Safety and Security (DPSS).

Two days after a shooter killed three and injured five at Michigan State University, an EdSurge reporter attended an active shooter training offered by the university where she is a grad student.

Protecting open campuses can be challenging but there are solutions and technologies available to help improve safety and security. 

The February 13 Michigan State University shooting is the 11th incident where a lone gunman killed three or more people on college campuses. Responses to such tragedies have included addressing trauma early and often, preparing coordinated emergency response for shootings and creating threat assessment teams.

Each year around St. Patrick’s Day, Sober Skate — co-hosted by Michigan’s Collegiate Recovery Program and the Washtenaw Recovery Advocacy Project — offers local college students and community members a dry alternative to the holiday’s liquor-soaked festivities. Not all attendees identify as sober, but they’ve all chosen to abstain from alcohol on one of the highest-risk drinking nights of the year.

Universities are updating security measures across the state. Michigan State University has focused on building access, classroom and door locks, camera coverage expansion, and mandatory training to improve security.