LM Jan 2024

Lessons Learned from Parkland

By Jason Nevel IASA Director of Communications

A strip of black duct tape still lines the tiled classroom floor at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School where multiple students were shot and killed by a 19-year-old gunman on Valentine’s Day five years ago. The tape was laid down, about five feet to the left of the door, for an important safety reason that was unfortunately forgotten amid the chaos of an active shooter. The line marked a hard corner, where anyone huddled in front of it was out of the sight and firing line of someone peering through the door window.

Nicholas Cruz never stepped foot inside any classrooms the day he murdered 14 students and three staff members in Parkland, Florida. Instead, he fired his AR-15 from the hallway through the door and windows. “They had actually practiced going to the hard corner but, in the first classroom he shot up, students went to the opposite side of the room,” said Dr. Steve Webb. Dr. Webb, superintendent of Goreville CUSD #1, and Dr. Roger Alvey, superintendent of Illini Bluffs CUSD #327, were recently panelists on the IASA Spotlights School Safety Webinar: Lessons Learned from Parkland.

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LM January 2024