Parkland, Florida became the latest focus of the national conversation on gun violence in schools when a 19-year-old former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School opened fire on Feb. 14, killing 17 people on campus.
Parkland was named the safest city in the state of Florida in 2016, according to the National Council for Home Safety and Security, a national trade association that releases evaluations.
President David Van Zandt addressed recent national incidents of shootings on school campuses, in a statement to the New School Free Press. Van Zandt emphasized that gun violence threatens the safe environments provided by schools. He also said that New York is one of the safest cities in the country, and that The New School maintains a strong relationship between NYPD and on-campus security.
“As a society, we need to examine the cultural and structural norms that have allowed gun violence to grow. In the wake of recent tragedies, we continue to review and strengthen our procedures for protecting our campus,” Van Zandt said.
“Our goal is to be as prepared as possible,” Thomas Iliceto, director of Campus Safety at The New School, told the Free Press.
“The Campus Safety Department continues to train their personnel with the latest protocols recommended by law enforcement.”
New School Security and the NYPD exchange information about reported crimes and the university uses NYPD’s best practices in its emergency planning.
“The New School’s urban campus setting makes those guidelines the most accurate model for crisis and other incidents,” said Iliceto. He urged members of The New School community to call 911 in the event of an active shooter incident.
If there were an incident on campus, the university would use New School Alerts, a notification system that broadcasts via cell phones, landlines, and email. Students, faculty and staff must manually sign up for New School Alerts through MyNewSchool.
In the event of an active shooter, The New School follows the so-called “ABC’s” for an active shooter, also known as “Run, Hide, Fight,” according to Iliceto: “Avoid” by safely evacuating the building. “Barricade” by blocking the door, either by locking doors if available or by using desks, chairs or tables to prevent someone from getting inside the room. “Confront” by acting aggressively to disarm or stop the shooter. This last tool should be used as a last resort if the other options are not available, Iliceto said.
New York is one of 16 states that ban carrying a concealed weapon on a college campus, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. “New York State, as a whole, has stronger gun safety laws than the rest of the country,” Adam Skaggs, chief counsel for the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence told the New York Times in 2017.
The most recent violent event involving a gun in a New York school, as of the publication of this article, was on Feb. 8, at Metropolitan High School in the Bronx, according to Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, a nonprofit organization that advocates for gun control. A gun was fired by a 17-year-old student and no one was harmed.
The New School’s Annual Campus Safety Guide’s Weapons Policy also specifically forbids rifles, shotguns, and handguns on campus. Student Conduct and Community Standards would be involved in any breach of conduct of this policy, Iliceto said.
Part of the university’s primary protocol in the case of a dangerous emergency is a lockdown. In the case of a lockdown, campus safety officers forbid entrance to and evacuate at-risk buildings. Every New School building has multiple escape routes. Campus Safety also serves as the primary point of contact for emergency responders, and will assist emergency personnel — like firefighters and police officers — in performing their duties.
Iliceto also described how people on campus with disabilities should act in the case of an emergency. “If disabled members [of the community] can safely evacuate, they should do so, otherwise they should barricade themselves with help from other students, faculty or staff,” he said.
Campus Safety has performed numerous active shooter drills at the university, including training for RAs in all of New School residence halls, according to Iliceto. Cameras are also located throughout university buildings.
Staff in the office of Campus Safety aren’t the only people concerned with gun violence on campus.
Mark Randall is the associate director of the BBA Strategic Design and Management Program at Parsons. He is also the founder of the public art and design initiative, AMPL!FY, which is committed to socially engaged design creating thought-provoking posters about social issues, including gun control.
He plans to shape the final project for his class, “Influence by Design: Insights and Strategies for Persuasion,” to address gun violence on campus.
Randall acknowledged that it may be hard to get New School students concerned about gun violence. “Getting people to pay attention will be the biggest hurdle. The shootings happen with such regularity and they are so overwhelming — and removed from those of us who do not have direct experience — it is hard to grasp,” Randall said.
He also cited The New School’s urban campus as a safety challenge, since there are no “actual boundaries.”
Miles Kohrman, former editor-in-chief of The New School Free Press, is currently an editor at The Trace, a non-partisan, non-profit journalism outlet devoted to gun-related news in the United States. The Trace was established in 2015 with funding from the gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, founded by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Kohrman said press coverage of the Parkland shooting has been different than coverage of previous shootings, as the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have controlled their narrative.
“What came out was much more raw, much more visceral. Part of what that has led to is that these kids, these victims, have really seized the moment more so than in the other shootings that I’ve seen,” he said. “They have really managed to keep the focus on them.”
March For Our Lives, a rally against mass shootings, will take place in Washington DC on March 24 to demand that safety become a priority and policymakers help put an end to gun violence and mass shootings in schools.
A sister march will take place in Manhattan on March 24.
The New School said that participation in non-violent protests will not jeopardize applications to the university, in a tweet on Feb. 24. “The New School was founded in 1919 by a resistance against censorship. Today, we still believe people should hold true to their values without fear of repercussion,” the tweet said.
Illustration by Kiana Toossi