Ultra-safe school gets close look

Douglas parent hopes Broward will adopt strong security features

Max Schachter believes his son Alex could have survived the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High massacre if the school had been equipped with the security features found in one Indiana high school.

Southwestern High in Shelbyville, Ind., has bulletproof doors and windows, key fobs that teachers wear as panic buttons and smoke cannons that can obscure a gunman’s view. It’s also the only school in the country that has a surveillance and communication system with a direct connection to local law enforcement, experts say. These security features have earned Southwestern a reputation as the “safest school in America.”

Stoneman Douglas, on

the other hand, struggled with a fire alarm system that activated during the Feb. 14 mass shooting and caused confusion, a surveillance system that misled cops by being monitored on a time delay, and windows that offered no protection from the gunman with an AR-15 style rifle. Many believe that those problems, as well as a school police officer who failed to confront the killer, contributed to the deaths of 17 students and employees.

“The simple truth is if Alex’s school had just had bulletproof glass windows, Alex and many of the other victims would still be alive today,” Schachter said, adding that gunman Nikolas Cruz never actually entered any of the classrooms.

Last week, Schachter toured Southwestern High with a group that included Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie, School Board member Abby Freedman, Sheriff Scott Israel and Lori Alhadeff, whose daughter, Alyssa, was killed at Stoneman Douglas.

Among the security features at the Indiana school:

Cameras provide a direct feed to the sheriff’s office. Dispatchers can automatically locate the shooter’s position in the building.

Teachers wear panic buttons as fobs that alert administrators and police of a crisis.

Classroom doors automatically lock in an active shooter situation.

Red lines of tape in each classroom mark where students and staff should get behind to avoid being seen by someone looking through the window.

A box on the wall allows a teacher to mark the class as safe or in danger.

Smoke cannons in the hallways make it difficult for a killer to see anything.

Runcie said he was impressed by much of what he saw, particularly the bulletproof windows and doors.

“There were a lot of things worthy of consideration,” he said.

Schachter said the Indiana school looks like a typical school, not a prison, which has been a concern among some students and parents skeptical of current and proposed security measures, such as metal detectors, high fencing and numerous police officers.

“They’ve used technology to protect children but also to make sure they’re in a comfortable environment,” Schachter said.

The idea for the hightech security system came from the Indiana Sheriff’s Association, which was looking to make schools safer after the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. The group discovered that Net Talon, a Virginia-based company, had created the virtual command technology it had been looking for, according to media reports. The security system, installed in 2014, brought national media attention to the school.

Officials with the school declined to comment.

But Don Jones, CEO of Net Talon, said six other schools in Indiana are planning to duplicate the features at Southwestern.

One major challenge the Broward school district faces in enacting these measures is money.

The security upgrades at Southwestern High cost $400,000, most of it funded by Net Talon, with the rest coming from grants.

To replicate that at all 230 schools in Broward would cost at least $92 million, roughly the same amount allocated for all schools in the state. But the price tag is likely more than that, since Southwestern is a 300-student school with one building. Most Broward schools are much larger. Stoneman Douglas, for example, has 3,200 students and 14 buildings.

“You see the problem,” Schachter said. “The reality we’re facing is that right now you really need a lot more state and federal funding to implement these measures to make our children safe.”

Schachter has created a nonprofit group, Safe Schools For Alex (SafeSchoolsForAlex.com), to try to find solutions. He’s working with elected officials, including Florida Sens. Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio, to try to secure funding and national safety standards for school buildings.

Wednesday, he will meet in with Nelson, Rubio and other officials at a national safe schools forum in Washington, D.C.

Schachter said only one vendor currently provides the safety features found in the Indiana school, but if those features became standard, it would attract more competition and bring down the prices.

And Schachter said his group may look for small increases to property taxes to help pay for improvements.

“I’d gladly pay more if it could save one person’s life,” he said.

“They’ve used technology to protect children but also to make sure they’re in a comfortable environment.” Max Schachter

CARLINE JEAN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER