LARGO, Fla. (WFTS) — Five years ago today, a gunman walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and started shooting.
"There's days where it feels like yesterday, and there's days where it feels like an eternity," said Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri.
17 people died. A senseless tragedy that sparked a desire for change. Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri noticed the flaws in the design following the shooting.
"There was a big gaping hole in Florida, as there is still in many parts of the country and there was in school security is that yeah, there were things but it was check the box. It was perfunctory. It wasn't the priority. It wasn't at the forefront," he said.
Stephanie Cox has two middle schoolers. Their safety is her main concern.
"It has been, unfortunately, our reality ever since we were looking at preschool for our kids was that potentially someone could go in and shoot them," said Cox.
Following the Parkland shooting, Florida launched the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission. Sheriff Gualtieri serves as Chairman.
"Look at what's happened, and importantly, not happened in Florida over the last five years," said Sheriff Gualtieri. "We haven't had another Stoneman Douglas. And I think that we can say that the measures we've put in place have at least contributed to that."
Since that shooting, changes statewide include:
- Single point entry on campus
- Fenced campuses
- Communication devices
- Panic buttons
- Window coverings
- Armed security on every campus
"We had to expand the size of my security department, get them guardian certified, and put them on the campus. So, for a department that had about 80 officers, we're now at nearly 400," said Hillsborough County Safety and Security Chief John Newman.
Chief Newman said the shooting was eye-opening for him.
"When I came back here to our district after seeing and listening to the Commission hearings. We were right in the same boat. I'm not sure if we would have had a better response. So we really made an emphasis to provide resources to all of our employees to be able to call and communicate a threat
Extra security was just one change for the Hillsborough County Public Schools. They also launched a partnership with Centegix, equipping all 27,000 employees with the ability to quickly call for help.
"By providing all of our employees with a card that when they activate the card, we're sending you help no matter where you are on the campus. If you're on our campus, and you communicated a threat, we're sending help," Newman explained.
But Cox sees a glaring problem, still in need of a resolution.
"We need to get more guidance counselors and mental health professionals in schools to help alleviate some of the mental health issues that students are having," she said.
Mental health continues to be a topic the Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission continues to address.
"What I'm really seeing, probably the last couple, three years, the big emphasis has been on mental health, rightfully so. It's probably the only forecasting that our school administrators have, like if a student is having some issues, whether it's suicide ideation, or they're acting out in a really extreme behavior, or they're journaling things that are that would require you to take a look at. It emphasizes mental health provides one the kids with solutions, if they're having issues, but it also helps the school to know that you might have a student that's having some issues, and we need to provide him with some services." Newman said.
Sheriff Gualtieri believes one component of addressing mental health and other underlying factors is more resources pumped into the School Environmental Safety Incident Report, more commonly known as SESIR.
The report is a part of FLDOE. It details any incident on campus, from a murder, to bullying, to drug and alcohol possession.
"In order for school districts to be able to assess the culture and climate of each school, you got to know what's going on. How are you going to know what's going on? That's by the data. And if the data is not right, then you have a hard time assessing it and parents also being able to assess school culture and climate," said Sheriff Gualtieri.
Both Newman and Gualtieri agree unity is a big component in addressing tragedies like a school shootings.
"Really for us, we saw that they had an armed person on campus. They had cameras, they had fencing, but they really didn't have fidelity. And I think that's the biggest charge for districts now is to really insist that their personnel know that ever, one's responsibility is security," said Newman.
"If I had to point to one thing that has made a big difference today from where it was five years ago, I'd say it's the culture. And you know, that's intangible. But unless you have that buy in, and you have that understanding of how important it is the emphasis and understanding that it is the number one priority, then you're not going to get all that other stuff done so singularly it's the culture, but underway, and that is, in a tangible sense. It's everything coming together," Sheriff Gualtieri said.
Now Sheriff Gualtieri hopes to see changes to every law enforcement agency aimed at Active Assailant Response Plans.
"Let's use a sports analogy. Failure to plan is planning to fail. If you don't have a plan, you don't have a policy and you haven't trained on it, then what's gonna happen? You're gonna fail. People aren't going to react, people aren't going to respond, because they don't know how and they don't know what's the expectation is and they've never been trained on what they're supposed to do," he said.
ABC Action News also reached out to every school district in the Tampa Bay area to find out what's been done to increase safety over the past 5 years. Here's what we found out:
The Pasco County Schoo District has worked on the following initiatives:
• Security Cameras
• Work orders for repairs and expenditure of the Safe School's allocation
• Window Security Film
• Access Controls – such as locks and buzzers at entrances
• Reunification Plans
• Emergency Operation Plans
• E911- Alyssa’s Alert
• Fencing
• Signage
• Communication Improvements.
The Hernando School District has made the following enhancements:
• Added full-time School Resource Officers at all schools
• Added Guardians at all high schools with more planned for middle schools next year
• Upgraded security cameras
• Upgraded classroom locks
• Created a single point of entry at school sites
• Upgraded emergency communication tools
The Polk County School District has also made changes:
• They were one of the first in the state to implement the School Safety Guardian Program
• Added front door security systems
• Added required ID badges to be worn by students and staff
• Added lockdown alert systems (panic buttons on staff phones)
• Added staff and student training and drills
The Pinellas County School District has also made changes:
- Meets all requirements under the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Act
- In August 2022, Implemented ALERT (Active Law Enforcement Response Technology) by IntraLogic Solutions (ILS), which consolidates the district’s safety and security technology under one platform. ALERT gives Schools, police and local law enforcement eyes on the scene and real-time remote access to school mapping, cameras, electronic door-locking systems and intercom systems.
ABC Action News will update this story upon hearing back from Citrus, Sarasota and Manatee County School Districts.
