Columbine principal offers practical advice
PARKLAND — After school shootings like the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, administrators reach out to former Columbine High principal Frank DeAngelis for advice, since there is no book to teach what he learned after gunmen killed 12 of his students and a teacher in 1999.
There should be no balloons at Stoneman Douglas’ welcome-back ceremony, he told the school’s administrator. The reason: Some balloons popped at Columbine’s reopening, sending students diving for cover. Have substitutes on hand in case teachers need time to compose themselves. Change the sound of the fire alarm, which got pulled at both Columbine and Stoneman Douglas during the shootings, or it will cause some to panic.
DeAngelis, who has spoken to Stoneman Douglas’ principal, said everyone must understand that the staff and students will never return to what they were before the shooting.
“It really is a marathon and not a sprint,” he said in a phone interview from his Colorado home. “There are going to be days when everything seems to be getting back to where it might have been prior, but then something happens to hinder the healing process. One of things people asked me right after Columbine is ‘When is it going to be back to normal?’ I said it never really gets back to normal.”
Stoneman Douglas’ 3,200 students are scheduled to return today, two weeks after authorities say former student Nikolas Cruz, 19, opened fire on Valentine’s Day, killing 14 students and three staff members. He is charged with 17 counts of murder.
School officials say they will have counselors at Stoneman Douglas to help students and staff. Extra armed security will also be on campus through the end of the school year.