On February 14th, 2018, Max Schachter and Lori Alhadeff experienced a parent’s worst nightmare. Schachter’s son Alex, aged 14, and Alhadeff’s daughter Alyssa, aged 14, were shot and killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. What followed was an extraordinary effort by both parents to make schools safe.
Meredith Kava is a WAER contributor and Sports Announcer. She created the video below as part of her studies in Syracuse University's Newhouse School where she is a senior. Meredith has personal connections to the area and some of the people directly affected by the Parkland School Shooting.
“I knew that in order for me to have change and to make sure it was done correctly that I need to have a seat at the table, that I need to have a voice, and that I need to have a vote to help to make change” said Alhadeff, who was elected to the Broward County School Board six months after the shooting.
Since the Parkland shooting, there have been 31 school shootings across the United States.
Meanwhile, Schachter was one of 15 members named to the newly-formed Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission, tasked with creating a comprehensive list of recommendations to make schools safer.
"Show me the rules, show me the standards, ..." Schachter asked about the school's safety, still having another son in the school. "I will make it safe. show me what to do. I came to find out there were no best practces. There were no safety guidelines...."
In the year since the shooting, WAER contributor Meredith Kava met with the two, as well as experts with an outside perspective, to discuss the improvements (or lack thereof) that have been made since the shooting. The video above drives the conversation of school safety one year after the Parkland shooting.
