Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission holds first meeting

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. – A commission investigating the Feb. 14 Parkland school massacre has learned that faulty classroom designs and police radio and 911 systems contributed to the chaos and possibly to some of the 17 deaths.

Broward Sheriff's Office officials told the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission at its first meeting Tuesday that teachers couldn't lock their classroom doors from the inside as they tried to lock down their students on Valentine's Day.

Instead, they had to open their doors and use a key to lock them from the outside.

The doors also had small windows, allowing the gunman to fire into the locked classrooms.

"All those kids were in a fishbowl," said Commission Chair Bob Gualtieri, who is also the sheriff of Pinellas County. "They were contained in there, and any other building on that campus would have been -- picture this like an outdoor motel, where the doors open on the outside. It's that type of a setup. So, this was a unique building. He was unchallenged, unfettered, unanything." 

Broward sheriff's radios were also not on the same channel as Coral Springs police, the two primary agencies that responded. Attempts to merge the radio channels failed, preventing the two departments from sharing information. Coral Springs and Broward are also on separate 911 systems and calls were coming into both.

Members of the commission include law enforcement officials, education officials, a mental health counselor and family members of the school shooting victims.

 


About the Authors:

Glenna Milberg joined Local 10 News in September 1999 to report on South Florida's top stories and community issues. She also serves as co-host on Local 10's public affairs broadcast, "This Week in South Florida."