Technical and Cultural Considerations for a New Normal

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission:  Initial Report by Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission
January 2, 2019

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Dedicated to the 17 students and faculty who lost their lives in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas (MSD) High School in Parkland, FL, this heartbreaking report illustrates an all-too-common reality facing most schools today. Beyond the chilling narrative timeline of gunman Nikolas Cruz methodically working his way through MSD Building 12, these 428 pages offer valuable lessons for independent school leaders. In fact, they lay out the hard choices all schools must make. For example: should we design classrooms with "hard corners”? Who should be authorized to call a lockdown? What’s the role of a standing Threat Assessment Team? While some of the report’s recommendations are technical (e.g., installing sufficient surveillance cameras and effective public address systems), the cultural changes it suggests may pose the greater challenge for most schools. Conducting regular active threat drills, requiring all students, faculty, and staff to wear identification badges, or keeping classroom doors locked: these behavioral shifts ask our communities to think differently about their lives at school. This new normal is one that no one welcomes and for which all must prepare.