Parkland School Shooting Prompts Local Safety Measures

Last week's tragic shooting in Parkland, Florida was one of the deadliest attacks on a school in United States history, prompting students and parents nationwide to call on lawmakers for action. Locally, Superintendent Maureen Greulich says the best defense of our schools comes from the inside, focusing strongly on our students' mental health.

"These are often folks who know the building, and have been a part of the school," says Greulich. "We take great pride in our relationships with our students both socially and emotionally, and have developed a well-oiled counseling system."

While lawmakers debate on both state and national levels on what mental health services and gun laws should be reformed, Greulich says she's most impressed with the actions being taken by students. Putting emphasis on the fact that these protests have been largely done in very respectful manner, Greulich says she watched in amazement at Emma Gonzalez, a survivor of the shooting in Parkland as she called for reform. "I love the fact that students are getting a voice. If there's any hope in making sense of all of this-and I'm not sure yet where that lies-I think it's going to be the young adults that point us in the right direction by respectfully calling for action."

Although Greulich did not want to go into any specific details of what security measures have or will be taken, she did emphasize that herself and her colleagues work "very closely with law enforcement-both police and fire", and that the new elementary school that is currently underway is being double checked by both architects and security planners to ensure a comfortable yet thoughtful layout to protect their students from any sort of attack.