It is appalling that at least one deputy (the School Resource Officer, no less), and perhaps as many as four, waited outside and refused to enter the building. Unarmed school employees and students did, and armed officers from Coral Gables and other police departments did, and EMTs wanted to but were prevented from doing so; but those armed Broward County deputies did not. They forgot one of the most important lessons learned from the Columbine murders twenty years ago: confront the shooter. Had those deputies done so, perhaps he would have fired at them, but then he would not have been firing at the children. Confronting the shooter forces him to alter his plans, forces him to lose control of the situation, forces him to react to something instead of having his way with unarmed victims. If not common knowledge, this at least is common sense. No, we do not mean crashing through the door as Rambo would, but confronting the shooter; while he is thus occupied, some of those victims could escape to safety, and a way may be found to neutralize him.
But the knowledge that people who could have taken action during the shooting failed to do so is not the worst thing that has been exposed; for, despite realistic training and capable weaponry, human fears still haunt the best of us; and can we be sure that we would have “run toward the guns” had circumstances placed us in the line of fire? The deputies who did not enter the building probably should be replaced with ones who will, but no other punishment is called for.
It gets worse. Last week we thought that the Broward County Sheriff or police responded to the shooters home some thirty-nine times. Actually, it was more often than that.
And although the Superintendent of Schools in Broward County claimed that the district received – and we quote – “No warning, no hints, no tips” – that the shooter was dangerous or likely to commit a horrific crime, the Superintendent did not tell the truth. Back in 2016, the school resource officer (yes, the same one who did not enter the building during the incident) had reported about the shooter cutting himself, threatening to buy a gun, ingesting gasoline and having items with “hate symbols.” Teachers as far back as Middle School (the shooter was 19) had reported his disciplinary problems, fights, threats, etc. The school itself had transferred the shooter, shunting him from school to school. But – the school had developed a policy, in conjunction with the Obama administration, to, in the words of commentator Michelle Malkin) to “reduce on-campus arrests and eliminate statistical racial disparities.” In other words, political correctness outweighed the usual practice of charging criminal behavior when appropriate, and items were kept out of the shooter’s file or their seriousness reduced in severity in the files, in order to remain in the good graces of the US Justice Department. As we wrote, last week, there were multiple reports about the shooter by multiple people of multiple threats he made, and the authorities in County law enforcement and in the school took no effective action to take the shooter out of the school, or to make sure he had the treatment he needed, or to put anything in his package – and that includes several, if not many things that would have prevented him from legally acquiring a firearm. It seems that the shooter himself called authorities and stated how dangerous he was, and they still did nothing.
The school and county authorities have a lot to apologize for, and much to regret. So far they have done neither – but they have blamed the NRA, Dana Loesch, Republicans and President Trump, none of whom directly had the opportunity to do anything to stop the horrific events at Marjory Stoneman Douglas on Valentine’s Day. But the Superintendent did, and the Sheriff did. Perhaps that explains why they are so eager to make others shoulder the blame.