OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ) – It was the start of second period, 9:12 a.m., when students heard a gunshot ring through the halls of Oshkosh West High School.
“I think I’m in shock,” says student Erin Slusarski.
Slusarski shared a similar rhetoric to everyone we spoke with in the Oshkosh community on Monday. Throughout the day, whether it was students, staff, parents, police, school administration, or even the cashier at the restaurant where we eventually grabbed a bite to eat, there was a just a look in their eyes – showing something was just off.
For many, Wisconsin’s second shooting at a school within just two days hit too close to home. That includes WTAQ’s Casey Nelson, who visited his alma mater for a reason he never quite imagined.
Scary. Shocking. Sad. That’s how my former teachers and Oshkosh community leaders described the incident at West High School Monday morning. Some friends with younger siblings attending the school tell me the news was simply “terrifying,” and refused to calm down until they held that brother or sister in their arms.
Many are still processing the chaos of locking down and evacuating the nearly 1,700 student school.
More than 70 officers from Oshkosh, UW-Oshkosh, Omro, Neenah, Menasha, Winneconne, the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department, State Patrol, and state Department of Justice responded to the school. Oshkosh Fire and Rescue also had a sizeable presence around the building.
Investigators report a 16-year old student stabbed a school resource officer with an “edged weapon,” and the officer pull his 9mm handgun and shot the student, hitting him once. The total number of shots fired has not been released.
“This is a big deal. We’re not that big of a city, we know pretty much everyone in the city and we know this affects a lot of people in our community,” says Oshkosh Police Officer Kate Mann.
Police Chief Dean Smith says the tight-knit community is looking for answers.
While speaking to a packed press conference Monday afternoon, Smith said “This is a tragedy. This is something that no school district, no city, no community wants to face, but together we’re going to come through. We’re going to make everybody whole.”
Smith says only one student was involved and it is being considered an isolated incident. The officer and student were treated for non-life threatening injuries.
According to the Oshkosh Police Department website, Officer Mike Wissink is assigned to Oshkosh West High School as the resource officer and liasion. However, police have not confirmed if he was the officer involved.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation arrived on scene about the same time as WTAQ News. They are taking over the investigation, as the resource officer is a member of the Oshkosh Police Department, and state law requires all officer-involved shootings be investigated by an outside agency.
As for how the school handled the situation in real time, district administrators say it was impressive. The school was placed on a lockdown, but students and staff who were far enough removed from the area were able to get out.
Superintendent Vickie Cartwright says they implemented ALICE protocol, the district’s training for incidents just like this.
“The traditional lockdown method is not necessarily the best method in order to keep students safe. That is why we continuously do training with our students and staff related to these ALICE protocols,” says Cartwright, “There are times where it’s more practical to evacuate versus going into a lockdown situation. If you are at a position within that facility in order to evacuate, remove yourself from harm, that is the proper protocol to utilize at that time.”
In the ALICE protocol:
A stands for alert. It means understanding you’re facing a threat. L stands for lockdown. If evacuation isn’t an option students and staff are encouraged to barricade.I is for inform. Others should be notified of the threat. C is for counter — which should be a last resort. If there are no other options, it’s recommended to make distractions and noise so the shooter can’t shoot accurately. E stands for evacuate. People should remove themselves from the danger as soon as possible.
There are reports of students running two blocks away to Perry Tipler Middle School, as well as those who fled and hid at a church and a mosque across the street from the high school.
Most students left without their belongings, including coats. There is no word on when they will be able to retrieve their belongings.
Several other schools in the immediate area were also placed on lockdowns during the investigation. Students and staff were all cleared from West High School, and were bussed to Tipler. Parents and guardians were able to pick up their children from the gym at Tipler with an ID. The perimeter barricaded by police reached just a block from the middle school, and that tight spacing did create traffic backups in the area for several hours.
A comment, reading “north is next on bro, it be crazy mf in that school” was also left on the department’s Facebook post about Tuesday morning’s officer-involved shooting at Oshkosh West High School.
Oshkosh Police launched an investigation into the comment. They do not believe the comment was intended to be a threat and say they don’t feel students are in any danger.
Other investigations follow Tuesday’s incident. Police are looking into information reported via social media regarding other possible incidents being planned at area schools. Those reports are currently unsubstantiated, and Oshkosh Police say the most recent case was traced to an IP address in the country of Belgium.
A similar vague threat was investigated regarding Appleton North High School. Police determined a threat on Snapchat originated from another country and was not directed at the school.
Classes across the Oshkosh Area School District were canceled for Wednesday.
The district is providing counseling and resources Wednesday for anyone affected by the incident. Four schools will have services available during the day:
- Perry Tipler Middle School from 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
- South Park Middle School from 9 a.m. – noon
- Merrill Middle School from noon – 3 p.m.
- Roosevelt Elementary School from 3 p.m. – 6 p.m.
The community is also stepping up to help Wednesday. The Oshkosh YMCA locations will be open free of charge on Wednesday, December 4 for Oshkosh Area School District youth ages 6-18 years old during the hours of 7:30 a.m.- 6:00 p.m. The Boys and Girls Club of Oshkosh will also be open 6:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
The incident in Oshkosh follows a shooting at Waukesha South High School on Monday, where a student reportedly pointed a pellet gun at another student and then responding officers. A second threat also forced Waukesha North to be placed on lockdown. Police say a student reportedly brought a gun to the school, but fled. That student was arrested at a home in the city.
There was also an increased police presence at two Germantown schools Tuesday morning after authorities learned of potential gun threats towards students and staff at Germantown High School and Kennedy Middle School. Grafton High School saw a similar response after a social media threat was posted over the weekend. A student admitted to sending that message. Greenfield High School also started their Thanksgiving break early last week due to “irresponsible comments about a potential school shooting” were made by a student on social media. That threat was found to not be credible, but closing the school was a precaution.
Lawmakers from around the state also chimed in with their takes on the incident.
Democratic Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers released a statement Tuesday:
“What happened in Oshkosh today hits especially close to home for Kathy and I — two of our kids graduated from Oshkosh West when our family lived in Oshkosh, and our hearts go out to all of the folks at Oshkosh West and the Oshkosh community as they grapple with today’s events.
I said it yesterday and I’ll say it again today — no kid should be afraid to go to school or be in the classroom, and no parent should be afraid to send their kid to school, either. The last two days tells us that we can’t keep pretending that this only happens in other communities or in other states — it’s happening here, too. We can’t just accept that violence in our schools is a foregone conclusion, and we have to get to work to do everything we can to keep our kids and our communities safe.”
State Representative Gordon Hintz of Oshkosh on Twitter:
“Less than 24 hours after the incident at Waukesha South High School, I am profoundly saddened to see my own friends, constituents, and neighbors having to come together to cope with an officer-involved shooting of a student at Oshkosh West.
Our community is fortunate that no lives were lost today, and I am deeply appreciative of the staff and law enforcement who acted to keep our students safe. As an elected leader, every day I feel the urgency of a public that is looking for answers and deserves leadership from their government officials on reducing incidents like this.”
Republican U.S. Senator Ron Johnson, who is from Oshkosh:
“The incidents at Waukesha South and Oshkosh West remind us that we do not possess the capability to completely prevent someone from bringing a weapon to school,” the statement read. “We should all be thankful, however, that larger tragedies may well have been averted due to training, and the swift and courageous action of students, teachers, school administrators, and armed school resource officers. Let’s not let anyone’s vision of the ‘perfect’ solution prevent us from taking action that will do some good.”
While Democratic U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin says:
“It’s heartbreaking to know Wisconsin students are going on Snapchat to let loved ones know if they are safe at school. My thoughts are with their parents and my thanks go to the educators who do everything they can to keep our students safe.”
Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Superintendent Carolyn Stanford Taylor is offering DPI’s resources to Oshkosh and asking the Wisconsin Safe and Healthy Schools Center to help as well.
“No words can express the anxiety and worry our parents, students, and staff must be feeling today. Violent incidents and threats against safety in our schools break my heart. Our schools have always been one of the safest places for our students, and I want that to always be the case. Schools train and prepare for threats and dangerous situations because of the unfortunate reality that this can happen anywhere. I wish this wasn’t the case; we need to do more.”
This will be a continuing story. Stay with WTAQ News for future updates as they are made available.
