News 4 Jacksonville by Elizabeth Campbell
August 20, 2018
ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – Some parents in St. Johns County are unhappy after the school district showed students videos depicting active shooter situations, which include footage taken inside a Florida high school during a deadly shooting.
The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office produced the videos with guidance from the school district.
Chuck Mulligan, a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office, said some parents got upset after learning the videos show footage from inside Stoneman Douglas High School at the time of the massacre. The footage, taken by a student, shows the legs of someone on the ground.
Mulligan said the clip was used to show students what they should not do, which includes being on their cell phone.
“There are some key learning moments from that video that we couldn’t recreate in any other way,” Mulligan said.
Mulligan said parents are also upset because they cannot see the videos, which are protected from public record access.
“If this becomes a public record then anybody who is planning to become an active shooter could walk into the Sheriff’s Office and ask to see it and we would have to let them view it,” Mulligan said.
The St. Johns County School District said there are five different versions of videos. One for staff, one for kindergarten through third grade, one for fourth and fifth grade, one for middle school students and one for high school students.
