Author Spotlight
Daisy Bolin
The Parkland, Fla. shooting Feb. 16 sent communities into a frenzy. Groups of students, parents and teachers filled every seat in the Corinth Panera on Feb. 25 to write letters to senators about amending gun laws. The SMSD school board gathered to discuss school safety in depth and various groups of students and parents in Kansas City began planning walkouts and a march in efforts to better prevent mass shootings and spark important discussion about the topic.
Tell me about the meeting you attended at Panera on Feb. 25.
“I saw something about it about two days before and originally I thought that day I shouldn’t go because I thought ‘what if something violent happened’ but then my friend convinced me to go.”
Why is this topic personal for you?
“It’s scary to think that something like that could happen here and it’s really sad to think about all of the kids who died on that day and someone I know was in it. My step-dad went to law school with her dad and I know her. She heard the gun shots and left the building, it was not following procedure, she just left. She’s really active and talking about it and it just hits a little too close to home. I just think that all of the violence is so unnecessary.”
Do you feel that the event will be impactful?
“I hope it’s impactful, but I don’t know that people are open to changing their perspectives. I think that these politicians are set in the way they think but I wrote a lot of letters, maybe ten, asking and basically pleading for them to see from my perspective. I asked for them to maybe visit a high school and see what it’s like and think about how scary it is. At this point they give you procedure like “go into lockdown” but that didn’t help so you don’t really know what to do, should you leave or should you stay?”
What’s something you wrote in your letters?
“I said I’m terrified to go to school. I don’t know if I should switch to online school just because I’m scared that this could happen and I don’t feel safe in a place where I should feel safe. I feel like I can’t trust teachers because of what happened in that one school where he shut out the kids. I don’t necessarily feel like I can trust security guards because we are all human, we get afraid. I know they’re here for our protection but it’s scary. I basically said please try and see how I feel about this.”
How do you feel about East’s security?
“I feel like we only have one security guard and what’s he supposed to do? I do trust them and I feel like I should but regardless it’s scary. They should follow protocol but we all have fight or flight instincts and you think you will stay in a moment and help but you might run because it’s scary. I think East itself is safe but there is just an endless world of opportunities for horrible things to happen.”
By Kaylin McCan
After the school shooting at Marjory Douglas High School in Parkland, FL on Feb. 16, Mainstream Coalition, a group consisting of members different political parties and Moms Demand Action, organized an event called, “Step Up and Advocate Against Gun Violence” on Feb. 25.
The goal of this event was to provide an outlet for people to voice their opinion and concerns on the recent tragedy that occured where 17 people were killed. Approximately 150 people – ranging from high school students to retirees – attended the event.
“We organized what we call a Mainstream postcard pop- up party,” said Outreach Coordinator for Mainstream, Lesa Patterson-Kinsey. “We have them on different issues as they come up, and of course the recent shooting in Florida prompted us to say ‘we need to have our voices heard in the legislation.”
Students from schools such as St. Teresa’s Academy, Shawnee Mission South and Shawnee Mission East also came together to write postcards to the Senate. The students and adults from around the Prairie Village area wrote to their legislative members asking the Senate to promote sensible gun legislation and not reduce the age from concealed from 21 to 18, after the recent school shooting that took place.
A group of teens from schools around the area assembled outside of Panera in a small circle brainstorming ways to voice their opinions and obtain media attention to make a difference. The students came with the idea to organize a protest and write to the legislature with concerns about our gun legislation.
“I personally believe in gun control,” junior Lillian Selby said. “Not necessarily taking away guns, but controlling them and restricting the access that people have to them, I think that it would help significantly because I’m afraid to go to school nowadays.”
Lawrence Free State High School organized a 17 minute walkout with signs to showcase a peaceful tribute to the victims and of the Parkland shooting. Members of the Young Democrats Club and East students are attending walks such as the “March For our Lives KC” anti- gun rally on March 24th in response to the school shooting in Florida.
Senior Kirby Motsinger and fellow East students are responding to the shooting by setting up a google form where submissions can be sent in with videos, essays and podcasts about students thoughts and views on gun control for the march on March 24th.
“We have over 10,000 RSVPs on Facebook already,” Motsinger said. “We’re trying to get as many speakers as we can for this march that are students because the recent matters affects us.”
Multiple walkouts will be held in support for the victims of the Parkland shooting and to voice concerns over gun violence. The National School Walkout will take place on March 14th that the Woman’s March Youth Empower Group planned. The March 24th rally which several east students will be participating in, is happening in Washington and Kansas City and the National High School Walkout will happen April 20th which is also the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting.
Tell me about what you experienced at Panera Feb. 20.
“My friend and I were just [at Panera] studying and then all of the sudden there was a mass crowd of people that just started coming in. Women came up to us and asked us to fill out cards about gun control so we filled them out and we kept getting asked questions and getting involved in the meeting. We ended up talking to this man and woman who were higher up in the “Step Up and Advocate Against Gun Violence” group and they told us about how they were holding this meeting to stand up for better gun control. The letters we wrote were going to senators to try to help gun control and we ended up helping with it even though we were just studying.”
What did you write on your letter to the senator?
“Annie and I split one and we wrote about how it’s scary now going to school because our government teacher told us one time that the perfect scenario where shootings will happen are in affluent neighborhoods, kind of where East is. We talked about how talking about it is scary and having these restrictions would make us feel safer because we shouldn’t be scared to go to school.”
Do you think this event will be impactful?
“There were a ton of people there so I think they did a good job of organizing it and making people aware and having all of those letters written. I think it was a good event to have because I don’t know how much each note will do but anything helps and this should make an impact.”
How do you feel about East’s safety?
“I think East is pretty safe with the SRO at the front but I know when I go out to lunch people prop doors open for me and there’s always a way around the school. I think it’s safe and I feel safe but I think it could be safer.”
A podcast featuring seniors at East who join a committee to plan a Kansas City “March for Our Lives” to take place at Theis Park, Downtown KC on March 24th.
By Grace Chisholm
East and SMSD leadership are working to improve school safety throughout the district following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Feb. 14.
Principal John McKinney formed a new safety procedure committee, which met Wednesday, to discuss ways to refine security procedures and teach staff and students protocols more effectively, so people “instintincutally know what to do.”
According to McKinney, the committee is operating with a constant question in mind: “Are we doing all we can at Shawnee Mission East to keep our staff and students staying safe?”
The group, comprised of teachers, administrators, student resource officers and district and Prairie Village police officers, discussed ideas such as installing automatic door alarms or cameras able to identify student IDs.
“What we were doing, we believe was working,” McKinney said in an interview. “But let’s do more, just to make sure.”
Senior Thomas Luger believes the safety procedure committee is a good idea considering recent events. He hopes students will be able to involve themselves in the conversation, too, a sentiment McKinney said was the eventual plan for the group.
“I think [safety] should be an administrator’s number one job,” Luger said. “I think you need people that meet on a regular basis that talk about safety.”
In addition to East’s leadership meeting, SMSD Executive Director of Emergency Services John Douglass met with district resource officers and district police captain Mark Schmidt on Monday to analyze security breakdowns in the Parkland, Fla. shooting, such as the shooter being let in a side door. They’re also reviewing SMSD’s procedures, looking for potential “weak points” to improve – none Douglass could specifically name.
Douglass reported to the Board of Education on Monday night that he’s already identified two tactics the Parkland shooter used to be more lethal, tactics SMSD is now strategizing to defend. He was unable to provide specifics due to the sensitive nature of the information.
“These events are constantly mutating,” Douglass said. “They do things a little bit different each time.”
Typically, the district updates its security protocol every summer, but events like the Parkland shooting prompt additional review, Douglass said.
Douglass and Schmidt stressed they are confident in the district’s current level of safety. Three years ago, security systems were updated across the district. In the “state of the art” system, cameras are viewed by six people at all times, and sensor-controlled doors send alerts when they’ve been open too long.
But the district’s biggest asset in remaining safe has been its students, Schmidt said.
Students have reported threatening Snapchats, text messages, even notes written on walls to administration which are then investigated by the district. Douglass told the board that the district has stopped three threats that could’ve become potential active shooter situations in the last three and a half years, as well as nine other less-developed threats. Douglass was unable to provide specifics, but he said tips from students allowed them to track down and investigate those threats.
“The student population has been very good about telling us what they hear and see, and that’s where it starts,” Douglass said. “If we know where to look and when to look, it is not a terribly difficult process to run [the threat] to ground.”
School Resource Officer Lacey Daly believes propping doors open is the biggest security problem East faces. East has 42 entrances and exits. When kids run to grab their backpack or money from their car, they often prop open doors instead of returning inside through the main office.
Propping a door is “not just a temporary solution to a temporary problem,” it could cause more harm, McKinney said.
“If they’ve got to run out to their car, maybe it’s just the inconvenience of having to walk all the way back around the building to come in the main door,” Daly said. “But if that’s what it takes to make us safe, then I think that everybody should be willing to do that.”
In order to discourage propping doors, McKinney hopes to invest in automatic alarms for doors.
Currently, campus security officer Shane Fries is alerted through the security system when a door has remained opened for too long, then passes that information on to administration. An administrator closes the door and assistant principal Britt Haney uses camera footage to see what happened and ID who opened it.
But no significant changes will be made until the district finalizes its own plan to update procedure, Daly said.
Moving forward, the safety procedure committee will be reviewing the current crisis management guidelines, which include instructions for drills such as “code red” and “lockdown,” in the event of an emergency.
The safety procedure committee talked about creating informational posters to remind students what drills mean, McKinney said. For example, a poster may break down levels of security like a stoplight. Green may mean normal security, yellow a lockdown or secure perimeter situation, and red stop everything and find cover.
The team plans to meet next after spring break to continue brainstorming and forming ideas.
“Thank God, more often than not we get the best,” McKinney said. “But God forbid someday we don’t, we’ve got to be ready.”
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