Report describes security lapses at Parkland HS
Failures on multiple levels revealed
The massacre of 17 students and staff inside a Parkland, Fla., high school earlier this year was marked by security lapses at the school and failures by multiple law enforcement officers to respond appropriately, according to a draft report from a state commission investigating the shooting.
The report detailed myriad issues that occurred before, during and after the attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, including unlocked entrances allowing the attacker inside, sheriff’s deputies who did not rush in to confront the shooter, and confusion among students, staff and law enforcement officials. This collection of missteps related to the Feb. 14 massacre includes many failures in school security that experts say are typical of schools nationwide.
“The omissions that were in Parkland, sadly, could be found in the great majority of public secondary schools across the country,” said Joe Eradi, a safety consultant who was superintendent in Newtown, Conn., following the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The draft report was released this week by a public safety commission, which will discuss its findings at meetings in Tallahassee on Wednesday and Thursday; its final report is due to go to the governor on Jan. 1.
The commission’s work follows intense criticism of authorities for failing to heed repeated red flags in the months leading up to the Parkland attack, as well as their response to the shooting.
Mass shootings are routinely followed by investigations into what happened, revelations of warning signs and attempts to identify areas authorities can improve upon when trying to prevent or respond to similar attacks. But the Parkland shooting was notable for the sheer number of missed red flags, including repeated, specific warnings that Nikolas Cruz, who has been charged with the shooting, posed a threat to a school.
The shooting gave way to intense scrutiny of officials and agencies in south Florida, including Scot Peterson, the Broward sheriff’s deputy assigned to Stoneman Douglas who failed to go inside the building during the shooting; the Broward Sheriff’s Office, which pledged to investigate charges that multiple deputies failed to go inside as needed and revisit how it handled calls about Cruz; the Broward school system, which has been accused of keeping information from the public; and the FBI, which acknowledged failing to act on a tip about Cruz weeks before the shooting.