Shooting at historic Baltimore high school got poor response from district, staff says
The city's response after a shooter burst into a Baltimore high school and wounded a staffer has two weeks ago has left the faculty dissatisfied and uneasy
Teachers and students inside Baltimore’s Frederick Douglass High School say they feel vulnerable and unsupported, two weeks after a gunman entered the school and shot and injured a special education assistant.
In the Feb. 8 incident, the sound of gunfire and reports that a shooter was inside the building spurred teachers to barricade their classrooms with desks and whatever textbooks or supplies they could find to fortify their rooms — where some of the locks have been broken or malfunctioning for months. According to police, Michael Marks, 56, confronted Neil Davis, 25, who is related to a student at the school. Davis was taken into custody without incident. No students or other teachers were injured.
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Now, teachers say they feel unsupported by district leaders and believe district and school officials failed to take necessary steps to improve security at the school or to address the trauma from the incident felt by students and staff, according to The Baltimore Sun.
In an interview with The Sun, a group of teachers called the response to the shooting disorganized, and said they were made to feel like they were being rushed back to “business as usual” without adequate concern for their or their students’ well-being.
“The message to kids is that the sacred space of your school can be violated and it’s not treated like a big deal,” Douglass teacher Daniel Parsons told The Sun.
As a result, roughly 20 teachers have signed a letter outlining their concerns and say they plan to send it to district officials.
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Douglass principal Craig Rivers said he hears the teachers and doesn’t intend to diminish their feelings. Rivers called the shooting “a principal’s worst nightmare,” and said his administration is working hard to keep the school safe and to help staffers and students heal, The Sun reported.
He acknowledged that there were still safety concerns at the school, which dates back to 1883, when the students returned but said in the two weeks since the shooting, the school has remedied many security problems and implemented new protocols.
Some of the teachers now say they struggle with PTSD-like symptoms. According to the Sun, they wanted to be given time to heal, and to return to a school that was safer. They say when they returned, they received neither.
But police officials have said that a vote that left school officers unarmed might have prevented the shooting altogether. In a January vote, the Baltimore school board voted unanimously against a policy that would have allowed the officers to carry weapons during the daytime, according to The Sun.
“We predicted that this would happen, that an outsider would come into a school and produce a handgun and shoot a staff member or student,” Sgt. Clyde Boatwright, president of the school police union said. “I wonder how that 10-0 vote feels now?”
