MSD Commission Initial Recommendations Focus On School Safety Fixes
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SUNRISE (CBSMiami) – The Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission has spent months digging into what led to the attack at the Parkland high school last February.
On Monday, we learned what changes the Commission might be recommending to try and prevent a similar tragedy to the one that killed 17 people last Valentine's Day,
In a working draft report released Monday, the Commission outlined page after page of potential changes, ranging from fixes that would cost little and be implemented quickly to changes that would take time and money.
Most of the changes involve upgrades and safety amendments to school campuses, including:
* Written active shooter/assailant policy be established for each Florida school district
* No school fence or gate be unlocked unless it's staffed
* All school employees have the ability to call a code red
Parent Ryan Petty, whose daughter Alaina was murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, said each school district needs a clear code red policy.
"It's unconscionable to me that we leave our teachers and our vulnerable students in a situation where it's unclear what to do when there's a code red," Petty said.
He added that the searing image left in his mind following the Commission's viewing of video from the shooting is the image of dozens of students standing in the 3rd floor hallway while the shooter roamed the floor below.
There was chaos on the third floor because some teachers and students were responding to the fire alarm in the building while others believed there was a shooter in the building.
Petty said if the shooter had gotten to the third floor just a bit sooner, the death toll would have been much higher.
Petty said it took more than three minutes for a code red to be called and he argues that had it been called earlier, more students would have been able to get into safe classrooms before the shooter made it to the third floor.
"If it was called earlier, more could have been saved," he said.
The working document also recommends bullet resistant glass be installed on classroom door windows and other windows.
CBS4 News reported a few months ago on a Broward company called Ballistiglass that installed a similar product on several Broward schools.
The Commission is also looking at recommending:
* An audible alarm installed throughout each school campus.
* Law enforcement be able to live monitor school cameras
* Hard corners be established in each classroom where students/teachers are not visible from classroom door or window.
"(They need to) get desks and bookshelves and anything else that's taking up that space out of the way so students and teachers have a safe place in which to shelter during an active shooter situation," Petty said.
Petty said his work on the Commission is vital to trying to protect students and teachers in Broward, in Florida and across the country.
"There's nothing I can do know to bring my daughter Alaina back," he said. "There's nothing I can do to bring back to those 16 other souls that were lost that day but what I can do is help others to learn from the mistakes that were made."
The MSD Commission will meet again next month in Tallahassee to complete their report to the Florida Legislature and Governor. To view the document, click here.
