“What school safety is to me is that my children would go to school and come home alive”
On February 14th, 2018, 14 students and 3 educators were shot and killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
“I live in Parkland, Florida this was the safest city. This would’ve never happened here in Parkland. I never dreamed in a million years that my daughter would be shot in her English class as she tried to learn.”
Lori Alhadeff lost her 14-year-old daughter Alyssa in one of the deadliest school shootings in history.
Three months later, Alhadeff officially announced her decision to run for the Broward County School Board.
“I decided to run for the school board because when I was sitting Shiva for Alyssa it became very clear to me that everybody wanted change but they couldn’t do it. I knew that in order for me to have change and to make sure it was done correctly that I need to have a seat at the table, that I need to have a voice, and that I need to have a vote to help to make change.”
Alhadeff joined 8 other school board members tasked with reviewing safety recommendations put forth by the newly-formed Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission.
“After 9/11, they made the airports safe. After the Oklahoma City Bombing, they made the federal buildings safe. Those are federal buildings. Schools are locally run by, for instance in Broward County, nine members of the school board. Everything is controlled by those nine people.” Max
Max Schachter is one of 15 members on the MSD Public Safety Commission, created less than a month after the shooting.
Schachter’s 14-year-old son Alex died in the MSD shooting.
“That murder did not enter any of the classrooms. He shot right through the glass window of Alex’s classroom door. I still had my older son Ryan in that school at the time, so I said ‘show me the guidelines, show me the rules, show me the standards. Obviously the schools not safe. I will make it safe. Show me what to do.’ And I came to find out that there were no best practices. There were no school safety standards or guidelines.”
Between 2014-2017, the Broward school district reported to the state zero instances of bullying, trespassing and harassment.
However, multiple cases were called in to the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
“Broward County and Marjory Stoneman Douglas reported from 2014-2017 zero cases of bullying, zero cases of harassment, zero cases of trespassing. They’re all lies. You know garbage in is garbage out and that’s the reason why you have this basically false narrative and the public was lied to and misled.”
Schachter proceeded to meet with school safety experts and security companies to find ways to make schools safer.
That led him to the CEO of IntraLogic Solutions, Lee Mandel.
“When I saw the events that happened on February 14th, I said I really wanted to see what I could do to help. And we went to Parkland…and putting the faces to the names and really seeing the pictures of the victims really hit home close to me. And realized what we were doing was more than just a business. This is really about people’s lives and saving people’s lives.”
IntraLogic’s technology is currently installed in over 150 school districts nationwide.
Mandel met with Schachter following the shooting to consult on technology needed to make schools safe.
“I get asked all the time if the technology that we provide and other technology can really solve the situation we are seeing now more and more frequently… I think this is one of the key components but it’s a much bigger picture. And anyone who says that any one solution will solve the problem is wrong.”
Eleven months following the shooting, the MSD Commission released a list of safety recommendations for schools to implement.
“Obviously, cost is a factor in everything that we do. So we need to evaluate is it worth spending all this money on one technology when you don’t even have locks on your door. That’s one of the things that the MSD Commission did that I’m very proud of. We made levels so we started off with recommendations for level 1. Level 1 recommendations are no cost recommendations and things that school districts should implement immediately. Then you’ve got level 2, level 3 and level 3 recommendations would be very costly and it would take a long time to implement. So school districts should look at those level 1 recommendations and implement them as soon as possible.”
Some recommendations include:
– Clearly mark campus buildings; Single entrance and exit point for campus visitors (Level 1)
– Install door sensors and cameras; Fence perimeter of campus (Level 2)
– Install ballistic resistant glass; Place GPS locators on school buses (Level 3)
The report also calls for the Florida Legislature to allow teachers – who go through proper training – to arm themselves.
“Law enforcement are trained to handle threats. Teachers are trained to teach, and that’s what the expectation is: for teacher’s not to have that added pressure on them. Police have psychological exams that are given to them to determine if they are even suitable to be a police officer, to carry a gun, to use force when needed.”
Vanessa Snow has more than 20 years of law enforcement experience, including serving at schools.
“I can tell you that any officer that works in a school, in the back of their mind, always fears that an active shooter will happen on their campus. That is the worst fear of anybody on a campus or any parent or any teacher is that that type of a horrific thing could happen.”
Eight Broward County deputies heard gunfire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, according to the MSD Commission.
The report states that not one “immediately responded to the gunshots by entering the campus and seeking out the shooter.”
“There was a change after Columbine. Before Columbine, there was the training that said if there is violence – an active shooter on campus – the police were to wait…After Columbine, we all were trained to not wait. To go immediately and address the threat. So everyday that we were on campus, we knew that should an active shooter happen…we knew that we would be the one to engage the threat.”
9 days after the MSD Commission released its findings, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel was suspended from office.
As of February 6th, 2019, Israel remains suspended.
The Broward County Sheriff’s Office declined an interview despite multiple requests.
“To wait for reinforcements to come is time that is lost and people that could be killed.”
It’s been one year since the shooting…
…and the progress that’s been made in school safety has garnered mixed reviews.
“You would think that after 17 people lose their lives that a lot would change and I think that it’s a lack of urgency. I don’t understand it, but to this day I still don’t think we have a code red policy in Broward County. We do not have a hard corner policy yet. It boggles the mind why that is the case. But it needs to happen in Broward County, and it needs to happen in every school district around the country.”
“Since Stoneman Douglas, there has been a mandate in the state of Florida that every school will be covered by a police officer. So our school district’s police department has officers at many of our schools. However, there’s …probably a great number of schools…that lack coverage…”
“School safety is making sure that teachers are safe and that kids are safe in their classrooms. It’s making sure that kids can go to school and learn and not worry about being shot in their classrooms, and teacher’s can teach and not have to worry about having an armed person come in to their school and hurt them and their students.”
“I do think since the Parkland shooting it has woke up our country and our schools and our officials and school administrators to look genuinely at the school safety at their schools specifically and what could be done to make changes.”
The Florida Legislature’s 2019 session commences on March 5th. This is when may of the recommendations in the MSD Public Safety Commission could become law…
…including allowing some teachers to arm themselves.
A draft bill is currently being discussed by the Florida Senate Education Committee.
One year ago, 17 students and educators were shot and killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. What followed was an extraordinary effort from those closely-tied to the tragedy to make schools safer. A year later, a comprehensive list of safety recommendations have been put forth and a new bill is on the table to improve safety efforts in Florida. However, these proposals are not without their critics. The following video drives the conversation of school safety and the improvements (or lack thereof) that have been made since the shooting to make schools safe. Included are interviews with those who were intimately impacted by the tragedy and experts with an outside perspective.
