PARKLAND: ONE YEAR LATER Podcast

It is important to remember that amidst all the questions, failures, investigations and demands for change and accountability after the Parkland shooting, 17 people were senselessly murdered that day. They expected to come home from school and they did not. They were dancers and dreamers, scholars and swimmers, teachers and coaches. Their lives mattered and in this episode we look at who these victims were and what the world lost the day they died.

Experts say that one of the biggest policy changes since the Parkland shooting might be the expansion of RPO’s — Risk Protection Orders. Those are the measures that allow law enforcement officers to petition a court to remove guns from a person deemed a danger to themselves or others. They work differently in different states, but since Parkland, a number of states, including Florida, have adopted them. In this episode, we ride along with investigators as they serve an RPO and we explore how RPO’s work and how effective they are.

The confessed Parkland school shooter left clue after clue throughout his life about his violent tendencies and troubled behavior. Yet dozens of people and agencies failed to report it or properly follow through on critical information that might have prevented the Parkland shooting. In this episode, we look at what we have learned about the shooter and how that information might help deter or prevent the next school shooting.  

School gates unlocked. School entrances unmanned. A school resource officer who chose not to confront a shooter. These failures highlight some of the catastrophic mistakes made on February 14, 2018 that enabled a determined school shooter to get on the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School campus and carry out a violent attack. Since that day the siren has sounded across the nation for enhanced school safety measures to deter or prevent the next school shooting. This episode explores the question — what’s changed with school safety since Parkland? 

In the immediate aftermath of the Parkland shooting, much of the debate and discussion focused on guns. Student activists said #Neveragain and rose up at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and across the nation to descend on Washington for a generational march, demanding gun control. While those efforts grabbed headlines, much work was done behind the scenes in Florida and across the country to try and change laws and beliefs surrounding guns and gun safety. This episode explores the question — what's changed with guns since Parkland?  Additional courtesies: CBS This Morning, CBS Denver, CNN

For the families of the 17 Parkland murder victims, a part of their lives ended on February 14, 2018. One of their loved ones was suddenly and violently ripped from them and, for many of them, they experienced a turning point soon after where they decided to take their grief and anger from their loss and turn it into demonstrable change. This episode explores that journey for a number of the victim’s families as we ask how have they changed since Parkland?