On Feb. 14, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with a legally-purchased AR-15 rifle. After pulling the fire alarm to disperse students from the classroom near the end of the day, Cruz opened fire on students and staff members, killing 17 before slipping out with the crowd.

As of March 8, 2018, there had already been 14 shootings on school grounds, averaging to around roughly two shootings per week, according to CNN. After the events in Florida, many parents, students and schools nationwide took a closer look at their safety protocol, including Lawrence North and surrounding conference schools.

At LN, students have a specific protocol to follow that principal Brett Crousore is in charge of putting into effect. LN, like every school in Indiana, has a safety protocol that is submitted to the state each year.

“Our protocol is we go on lockdown. Students are to hide in the classrooms and wait on first responders,” Crousore said.

Unlike some other schools, including the one in the Florida shooting, LN is staffed with safety officials at every corner of the school, something that has changed significantly in just the time Crousore has been employed at the school.

“We have first responders on property. When I first came to Lawrence North High School 22 years ago, we didn’t have first responders.” Crousore said. “We now have seven first responders on grounds at all times, and we have four to five police support officers inside that are first responders, EMT or firemen, who are trained in that protocol.”
Even before the tragic even in Florida, Crousore has constantly been trying to ensure the safety of students at  LN, including fixing systems that had been defunctant in the current school year.

“Prior to this event, I’ve had three meetings with PA systems because of the issue that we went through first semester. We had some lines that were down so classrooms couldn’t hear an announcements in every class. Obviously that was bad. That was something our technology officers continued to work on.” Crousore said. “Mike Boto, as soon as he came on board as our new chief technology officer jumped on it again. I’ve met with several because what I want as the next step again prior to this event I wanted to be able to directly call into a classroom because I can lock down that classroom and then you get, with the new system, there is a call from a classroom.”

Crousore knows that school happens. Things are constantly changing, but he recognizes the importance of staying on your toes at all time and making sure the school is set in the best place to succeed in case of tragedy.

“Now everybody has a phone system. I can hear everything in this building. I can get into our system from my phone. I can make an all-call from anywhere and it will shut this place down.” Crousore said.

Nobody expects their school to be the next. Everyone’s protocol seems solid until tragedy strikes. These events can happen anywhere and to anyone, and senior Emma Sherman knows that fact unlike anyone else.

Safety

There have been many mass shootings in America’s history, and the three worst coming in the last two years. One student at LN understands the fear of one.

“We were sitting in our terminal waiting for the airplane, and we were watching the news showing in the airport and it said ‘shooting at fort lauderdale airport.’ We were like ‘we are at Fort Lauderdale Airport thats crazy, there is no way.’ And in the terminal next to us, the delta terminal, there had been a shooting and everyone was on super high alert. There was this loud sound that people thought was a gunshot so everybody ran,” senior Emma Sherman said. On Jan. 6, 2017 Sherman was on vacation coming back to Indianapolis from Florida trying to catch her flight home when a man armed with a pistol open fired on fight goers inside the airport. The shooting had been reported to have only lasted 70 to 80 seconds, but the fear was real nonetheless for her.

“I thought I was going to die,” Sherman said.

After running with everyone, she soon discovered that she had been separated from her mother, father and her brother Jackson Sherman, a sophomore. “I left all my stuff and I got split from my family,” Sherman said.

While running away from the apparent danger, she attempted to find her family along the way. “I just found random people and asked to use their phone but  since everybody was trying to use their phones none of my calls were going through. And I’m sure my mom was trying to call mine, but my phone was in the airport still, so she couldn’t contact me,” Sherman said. Eventually she found her family on the tarmac. “I was freaking out more than my mom and my brother was freaking out the most and like my mom was pretty calm luckily,” Sherman said.

While Sherman’s experience occurred at an airport, there are similarities to what happened to her and Parkland with the reactions of both plane passengers and students reactions being similar. According to Sherman, you don’t think in those situations. “You don’t really think in the moment. You just run. There’s no…ideas that you think. Even though it turned out to not be a threat in my area I thought it was the real deal. You just don’t think about anything. You run and you hide and then afterwards it hits you,” Sherman said.

Ever since her experience at the Fort Lauderdale Airport she has felt that she could understand some of the feelings of those who have been in similar situations, and her outlook on school safety has changed because of it.

“I feel like I kind of have personal experience where I can relate to the fright of it because when we talk about doing drills, or like what we should do in the moment I know that that won’t happened. People are going to do whatever they want because they’re scared and I understand that feeling,” Sherman said.  At LN, practicing lockdown drills does not occur regularly and she feels like to better prepare they should.

There has been many different proposals nationally as to what can be done to deter school shooters and to make schools safer from proposing guns legislation that would ban assault rifles and add universal background checks, to arming teachers in classrooms.However, no single proposed solution has been perceived as the answer to the problem. And while no problem has been solved, Sherman still feels like LN is safe.

“I feel relatively safe. I feel like were not the sort of population, but like it only takes one person so I’m not scared but of course with everything going on there is always the chance,” Sherman said.

Change 

Since the tragedy at Parkland, students have been calling for change. These efforts for change have spread around the nation. Starting with the Florida students, they have organized the walkout on March 14 in which they aimed to send a message to Congress that they want more gun control. Students across the country, as well as at LN, are participating in this protest to support this cause.

“My goal for this is just to have better gun control. I think it’s ridiculous that students aren’t able to feel safe in school. I think school should be a place where everyone feels safe,” senior Jillian Eisenhut said.

Eisenhut is heading the efforts for change at LN. Eisenhut helped to organize the walkout at LN on Wednesday, March 14 and well as one in April. According to Eisenhut, the walkout on March 14 was a great success with around 150 students in attendance, which exceeded her original goal of 100 students.

“On the Instagram account I run I got a lot of people DMing me ‘Why are we doing this?’ ‘What is the point of this?’ Asking me to explain why we were doing this. So I did to the best of my abilities but I think students actually being there and seeing what we were doing helped them understand,” Eisenhut said.   “I’m definitely excited for the one in April because I think we will be able to do even more with that one, but I think this one was good and I think we got our message across.”

Not only do these types of protest help students spread a message but also helps them to work through these trauma events, according to trauma specialist Kate Creason. For most people, dealing with trauma starts with removing themselves from the situation and decreasing their viewing of the social media coverage. The next step is to talk about what the person experienced. Talking about the person’s fears and worries allows the person to grieve and start the healing process. The next and final stage is taking action.

“The next thing once you kind of get through those stages is to do something about it. So the kids that are leading this march in Washington and all of that it is actually good for their grief. That’s a very positive thing therapeutically for them to be doing something with all of those emotions,” Creason said. “So whether it’s writing your legislatures or writing the NRA or doing whatever, I don’t care what side politically you stand on, but doing something about those big things would be important for your feelings.”

Although she considered the walkout to be a major success, Eisenhut still believes there is much more work to be done. She hopes to make the walkout in April an even bigger event and get more students involved. Outside of these protests she encourages students to speak their opinions on the topic and spark conversation. While she was able to get out the message out to students that she aimed for through the walkout, she knows changes still must be made.

“I think it’s important because some teenagers may not know what to do and how to kind of spread the word or do their part to get gun control if that’s what they are passionate about and if that’s what they feel is right,” Eisenhut said. “We want our voices to be heard.”