MSD Safety Commission Member Max Schachter Says Parents Of Boy Who Brought Gun To School Need To Be Held Accountable
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – On Wednesday morning, a gun was discovered in a 10-year-old student's backpack in Fort Lauderdale.
The gun was not loaded and nobody was hurt, but it still caused a scare for parents and students of Walker Elementary School.
"I was trying to go home. I was scared," said one student.
The school was put on a "Code Yellow Lockdown," meaning everyone on campus had to shelter in place. No one was allowed in or out.
Even after the thread cleared, some parents said they were frustrated they weren't notified.
Max Schachter, whose son Alex was murdered in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting, said schools are now required to notify parents in a timely manner under the "Parents Need to Know Law."
Broward Schools told CBS4 that parent notifications were issued during the lockdown and when law enforcement cleared the threat. The district added it's important parents have the correct contact information on file and the preferred method of contact.
While the Broward State Attorney's Office said they won't criminalize the child, some parents think the 10-year-old's parents should be held accountable.
Schachter agrees but added that the 10-year-old's intentions matter and that the student needs to be checked on too.
"Was it a mistake?" Schachter wondered. "We need to understand the intention of the individual and see if there's still a threat.
Schachter is one of three parents on the Marjory Stoneman Douglass Public Safety Commission. At the last meeting on September 27, a disturbing revelation of an audit of Broward Schools from December 2019 to March 2020.
"We found a lot of deficiencies in the threat assessment process," Schachter said. "Sixty percent of medium- and high-level threats did not have an accompanying monitoring plan."
Examples of a monitoring plan Schachter said include checking that student's backpack in the future and making sure the child's home situation is safe. Another action item is to check the student's disciplinary background.
"It's very puzzling [and] upsetting to see things that should've been fixed after Parkland are still not fixed," Schachter said.