For Students Of Color At Parkland, More Security Doesn’t Mean More Safety

By Rebecca Klein, Huffington Post

Students Gabrielle Benzaken, left, Brielle Pitterson, center, and Falynn Kiernan, right, sit at makeshift memorial for Martin Duque, one of the victims of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, at Pine Trails Park, Wednesday, March 14, 2018, in Parkland, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission unanimously approved its final report last week, with hundreds of pages’ worth of investigation and recommendations now going to the governor’s office and the Florida legislature for action…

The report is an in-depth analysis of the Parkland shooting in February 2018 that left 17 students and staff members dead. It documents extensive shortcomings in the school’s security measures prior to the shooting, and outlines deficiencies in the police response. It offers a searing critique of the school and sheriff department’s ability to stymie the bloodshed.

The commission was formed in March by the Florida legislature, and its 16 members include sheriffs, school board members, academics and parents of students murdered in the shooting. Its report offers dozens of recommendations about how the high school ― and school districts around the state ― could improve safety. It calls for increased funding for school police officers and training teachers to carry firearms…

“We don’t necessarily trust police. We have a lot of reasons to not trust them,” said Aalayah Eastmond, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas who survived last year’s shooting. “So having them at school makes it ten times worse and heightens the problem.”

Eastmond told HuffPost the school has already started to feel less welcoming for students of color with an increase in police presence. She describes seeing “new people on campus every day with really big guns.”

“Some of them are really nice, but not all of them are nice,” she said. “We don’t really know them. It’s uncomfortable for a lot of people.”

While there have been a handful of instances where police officers prevented or mitigated school shootings, there is no comprehensive research suggesting that school police officers deter school shootings overall.

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