Father of slain Oxford student tells school board to 'shove' $500,000 offer

Jennifer Chambers, The Detroit News on Jun 11, 2025

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DETROIT — The father of one of four students killed in the 2021 Oxford High School shooting told Oxford school board members to "shove" their offer of $500,000 for his daughter's death after he said he was given less than 20 hours to consider and accept the settlement.

Steve St. Juliana spoke directly to the Oxford Community Schools Board of Education and its superintendent Tuesday night during a public comment portion of the board's regular meeting.

During the meeting, St. Juliana said he was sent an email at 1:38 p.m. on Tuesday with a final offer of half a million dollars to settle a lawsuit he filed in the death of his 14-year-old daughter, Hana, who was shot and killed inside Oxford High School on Nov. 30, 2021.

St. Juliana said the email came from school district attorney Tim Mullins, who set an 8 a.m. Wednesday deadline to accept.

It was unclear whether the parents of other victims had received similar settlement offers. Mullins and district officials could not immediately be reached Wednesday for comment. The board members did not respond to St. Juliana at the meeting.

"I got an email from you through my lawyers ... (saying) 'We are making the final offer to your claims to your clients, the estate of Hana St. Juliana, $500,000. This offer expires at 8 a.m. Wednesday, June 11,'" St. Juliana told the board.

On Wednesday, school board President Amanda McDonough issued a statement to The Detroit News saying the board was unaware of the offer and letter to St. Juliana and its conditions.

"We understand that the letter from legal counsel caused additional pain. We are deeply sorry for the impact it had, especially on those already carrying profound grief," McDonough said in the statement. "The Board was unaware of this specific correspondence. It does not reflect the depth of our compassion or the level of support these families deserve. We recognize that the approach felt impersonal and insufficient, and for that, we are deeply apologetic."

The offer, St. Juliana noted, came the same day Michigan State University announced it had settled with three surviving, injured victims of its 2022 shooting for almost $30 million.

"That's how little that you value our children," St. Juliana told board members. "I don't even know what to say. I mean, how can you not be embarrassed and ashamed? Not only of the offer, which is insulting, at the very least, but the manner in which it's delivered."

"Well, I'll deliver my answer right here. I am not going to stop striving for the changes necessary to save our kids," he said. "So you can shove your offer."

St. Juliana told The News he has received offers to settle before, including one for $900,000 earlier this year, and was given days to decide.

Lawsuits filed by victims and their families have alleged that the district failed to protect students and downplayed the threat the killer posed to the school.

Families of seven students who filed the civil cases have reached the effective end of their appeal attempts in May after the Michigan Supreme Court declined to hear arguments in the case against Oxford Community Schools and its legal responsibility leading up to the mass shooting. The civil lawsuits were initially dismissed in March 2023 by Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Mary Ellen Brennan after she ruled that the district and its employees were protected by governmental immunity and the proximate cause of the shooting was the 15-year-old shooter.

A federal judge ruled earlier that those cases also cannot proceed.

The shooter, a sophomore at the school at the time, fired his weapon 33 times in the attack and killed Hana; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; and Justin Shilling, 17. Seven others were injured.

St. Juliana and the families of the other slain students have expressed frustration and outrage at the lack of changes to the state's government immunity laws, which they allege are protecting the district and its employees from civil responsibility.

In 2023, the company Guidepost Solutions performed an independent investigation into the attack on Oxford schools, producing a 572-page report. The company found that missteps and failures by Oxford's former superintendent and two former members of his administration snowballed to allow the shooter to slip through the school's threat assessment and suicide intervention systems.

The killer and his parents remain behind bars. Both parents filed requests for a new trial or a dismissal of their convictions on four counts of involuntary manslaughter after being sentenced to 10-15 years each in prison.

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