Highland Park, a year later: How safety concerns have sparked debate within local high school district

One year after a horrific mass shooting shattered the notion of public safety in Highland Park, community leaders and citizens of all ages are still reckoning with what it takes to make safe space.

“Public safety remains one of the city’s top priorities,” said City Manager Ghida Neukirch.

As the city prepares to host a memorial walk Tuesday at a time it normally would hold its annual Fourth of July parade, officials are assuring the community that they drastically ramped-up security for a series of events.

During last year’s parade, seven people were fatally shot and dozens injured, a tragedy that left public officials with the challenge of how to give citizens a sense of safety, not just at the events on Tuesday, but everywhere and every day.

In some cases, talk of security has led to debate. And that includes at Township High School District 113, which has gone through an emotionally draining year.

District 113, which covers Highland Park, Highwood and Deerfield, had an all-hands-on-deck effort to reopen school safely while supporting students and families in the shooting’s aftermath. The July 4 shooting was squarely on everyone’s mind when the school year began: “We have an assault weapon ban in Highland Park so I thought I was pretty safe, but we saw that’s not really the case,” said Stephanie Diaz, who was about to begin her junior year.

School board President Dan Struck said Highland Park High School was “sort of the recovery center for the community,” opening its doors to a host of mental health professionals and social workers who provided free services.

The Fourth of July shooting drastically increased anxiety about school security, which was already heightened after the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in the spring of 2022.

Parents, educators and students, many of whom ran for their lives at the Highland Park parade, largely agreed about the threats facing American schools.

But there has been division among people in the community about how far school security measures should go after an instance of mass violence in the town, and after an April 4 scare and lockdown when a student allegedly brought a gun to Highland Park High School. Moments earlier, more than 100 students had staged a walkout to protest gun violence.

A group of parents and other residents began protesting at school board meetings following the lockdown, calling for metal detectors and armed security.

District 113 has spent “more time than ever before” speaking about security, according to Struck, who urged patience as he acknowledged the uncertainty is “frustrating” for some.

“We’re very serious about what works, what doesn’t, what is the best school security package. Not just an individual item, but what makes sense in the context of all security,” Struck said. “And that’s how we’re considering metal detectors.”

Students speak out

Spencer Sabath was one of a group of about 20 Highland Park teens who attended a particularly heated board meeting on May 30 to express opposition to calls from some in the community for metal detectors and armed guards.

“(The board) should not act out of fear,” Sabath said. “This is an issue that is part of a much greater issue, and they should go by the statistics. They should not be intimidated by the people who are just being pawns of the gun lobby.”

Sabath and other students who spoke were met with disgruntled comments from the crowd, and ultimately were escorted to their rides by police due to concern there might be an altercation as both groups exited.

Unlike parents who see them as a deterrent, Sabath said metal detectors would create a “constant, false sense of security” at school.

Diaz, who will be a senior next semester, explained that some students feel left out or dismissed from discussions about school security.

Diaz was one of the student organizers of the walkout on April 4 calling on leaders to do more to prevent gun violence. An empowering moment for students, Diaz explained, was immediately followed by more gun-related trauma.

“Only in America would you have a protest about gun control, and then five minutes later be put into lockdown because there is a gun in the school,” Diaz said.

Diaz said parents are “not the most rational” decision-makers on the emotional subject of school security. She worries about installing metal detectors.

“If anything, they’re going to make us filled with fear,” she added. “Because every day I’m going to be walking through and I’ll know that I’m walking through there because of the Fourth of July and because of that lockdown.”

And she believes the detectors might negatively affect students of color in particular, and said many of her friends have similar concerns about discrimination or unfair suspicions they will face, but white students may not.

“I know off the top of my head that a few of my friends who are Mexican would definitely get searched even though they are the biggest sweethearts ever,” she said.

District 113 already has school resource officers through local police departments, an anonymous tip line and strict visitor protocols, as do many area high school districts. It has enacted a host of changes since last summer, from hiring additional unarmed security team members to interviewing candidates for a new director of security position, and more subtle investments in surveillance and building access.

Superintendent Bruce Law said he regularly consults with area superintendents about security measures. The district also received guidance from the U.S. departments of Homeland Security and Justice, similarly to the city, about security, and Law said the school board has been supportive of safety-related investments.

“We have a group of schools that we use as comps for a variety of things, whether it’s looking at how competitive our compensation packages are or academic performance,” Law said. “Of those, only one, Hinsdale (District) 86, has approved a weapons detection system. But they are only implementing it at large sporting events if they have a credible threat. It’s not every student, every entrance, every day.”

Turning anger into love

Sabath, who just graduated, said his worldview changed after a 19-year-old killed 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018.

“I had a lot of anger that I was trying to turn into love, and then I tried to turn it into action,” Sabath said.

He became an active proponent of banning assault weapons, lobbied elected officials on gun control and even helped organize a student walkout when he was a seventh grader at Edgewood Middle School.

“The teachers didn’t want it, they were trying to lock the doors, but there were just enough students that people were just able to go out and protest,” he said.

Struck said he is proud of students who have spoken out and added he can “appreciate why engaged students would feel they aren’t heard as fully as they could.”

Another student, Jacob Rolfe, said when it comes to District 113, he has “lots of faith in our community” and hopes school officials will reach a plan that “really encapsulates learning, safety and mental health, but also sensitivity and empathy.”

He doesn’t view metal detectors as a cure-all for preventing gun violence at school. Rolfe, who will be a junior next semester, would prefer to see the district allocate resources to help teachers and administrators remotely or manually lock building doors from the inside in the event of an attack.

“Are you willing to cut down on your extracurricular resources for the metal detectors? Because that’s not something I’m open to as a student.”

‘Leadership means restraint’

When it comes to metal detectors, “the devil is in the details of implementation,” according to school security consultant Ken Trump, who has provided advice and carried out threat assessments at thousands of American schools over more than 35 years.

Trump, who is the president of National School Safety and Security Services (and has no relation to former U.S. President Donald Trump), has witnessed a rising urgency among school administrators in the aftermath of the Robb Elementary School shooting to “do something, do anything, do it fast and do it now.”

Schools are “somewhat notorious” for installing metal detectors at the behest of concerned parent groups or after a violent incident, Trump explained, but unless the devices are staffed well, on during all school hours and secondary checks are performed, they have little value.

“Kids are there in the evening, you have athletics, performing arts, clubs, activities, some schools have pools, whatever,” Trump said.

Currently four Lake County schools use metal detectors. Administrators and school boards may be under pressure to be vigilant and appear proactive, but Trump said that sometimes, “leadership means restraint.” But the metal detectors can also pose a financial burden for some districts.

“So, are we going to waste our time, limited resources, limited staffing, limited time to do this, for security theater, to create emotional security by a false sense of security?” Trump said. “Our recommendation is no.”

As security discussions continue, a pit remains in Sabath’s stomach as he heads to college because “nothing has been done” about the broader issue of gun violence. The inaction, Sabath believes, has enacted a serious toll on young people in Highland Park and America.

“There are people around me, and I have been advocating for this issue and only this issue for most of my childhood now,” Sabath said. “I’m satisfied because I know it’s for a good cause, but it feels like a lot of time has been taken away from my childhood. Part of it ended after Parkland, part of it ended after July Fourth and I don’t really know what’s left of it.”