Lori Alhadeff: A Mother Fights for Safer Schools

Show Transcript

Her Daughter Was Killed in a School Shooting; Now, She's Working to Make Schools Safe

[00:00:00] Bob Gatty: Hey guys, welcome to the Lean to the Left podcast, where we explore the important social issues of our time with just a little Lean to the Left.

[00:00:09] It was a parent's worst nightmare, and it's happening these days to far too many families. The Alhadeff family lost their beautiful 14 year old daughter Alyssa in the brutal shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Valentine's Day, 2018. Now, Alyssa's mom, Lori, is fighting to prevent such tragedies from occurring again, and she's with us today to share her story.

[00:00:39] So stay with us. 

[00:00:42] Alyssa was a bright, energetic, happy, athletic girl, a pure ray of sunshine who lit up every room with her warm smile. She was an honor student, a good friend who helped others, a winning debater and the captain of her. traveling soccer team. Alyssa was playful, loved dancing, singing, and family beach days on Long Beach Island, New Jersey.

[00:01:07] Even as a fierce, attacking soccer midfielder, she loved clothes, makeup, and all things sparkly. She was a big sister to her two younger brothers and a mentor to her younger cousins. In their grief, Lori and Elan Alhadeff founded Make Our Schools Safe so no other parent has to endure their pain. Lori, thanks so much for joining us today on the Lean to the Left podcast and for sharing your story.

[00:01:39] I'm so sorry that you lost your daughter in this horrible way. 

[00:01:44] Lori Alhadeff: Thank you for having me here today. Thank you. 

[00:01:48] Bob Gatty: Can you please tell us a little bit about Alyssa and the tragic event that took her away from you? 

[00:01:55] Lori Alhadeff: So it was Valentine's Day six years ago, February 14th, 2018. And I knew Alyssa wasn't very looking forward to this day because she didn't have a Valentine. So I made her a very special gift with a gold bag and a chocolate bar and diamond earrings. And that morning before I drove Alyssa to school, I gave Alyssa the bag in the car. And she was super excited. And I put the earrings in her ears and she put the chocolate bar in her backpack and threw the gold bag on the floor.

[00:02:31] And then we drove to Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school and I had Alyssa got out of the car and she looked so beautiful. She was wearing a black and white dress. I told Alyssa that I loved her and that would be the last time that I would see Alyssa alive.

[00:02:48] Bob Gatty: That's just horrible. I had a, I have a daughter too, and I just don't know how, I don't know how you can just survive, let alone take action and try to do something like you're doing with Make Our Schools Safe. Can you tell us a little bit about it and its mission and why you launched it? 

[00:03:13] Lori Alhadeff: Very quickly, after the tragedy, My husband and I, we wanted to take action.

[00:03:20] So we started an nonprofit organization called Make Our Schools Safe, and we're focused on three pillars. One is passing ELISA's law nationwide, panic buttons in schools, as a standard level school safety protection. So if there's an active shooter or a medical emergency, We want to empower our teachers to push a button and it's directly linked to law enforcement within seconds, so they can then pull up the cameras, get eyes on the scene, and get help there as quickly as possible to take down the threat or triage any of the victims.

[00:03:54] Secondly, we have make our school safe clubs. We call them mosque clubs where students help to create a culture of safety within their school, where they're empowered to be a part of that safety. So if they see something, say something, and we can prevent violence from happening before it happens. They can also apply for donations for school safety projects at their school, like bulletproof glass, fencing, mental health programs.

[00:04:23] And then thirdly, Make Our School Safe has given back about $400, 000 to school hardening projects at different schools to help create a safer environment at that school. 

[00:04:37] Bob Gatty: Wow, that's impressive. You joined the local school board. Why did you do that?

[00:04:42] And what's that meant to you, Lori? Lori? 

[00:04:46] Lori Alhadeff: So right away after the shooting, it was the school board elections and myself and Ryan Petty, whose daughter was Elena, who also died in Alyssa's classroom, along with Alex Schachter, but Ryan and I, we ran for the school board. And I ran in district four and I won.

[00:05:12] And I knew that, thank you. I knew that in order for me to make a direct impact here in Broward County, I need to have a seat at the table. So I ran for the school board. I've been on the school board now for six years. And currently I'm the chair of the school board for my second year in a row. And Broward County public schools is the sixth largest school district in the country.

[00:05:36] Bob Gatty: Wow. Okay. So you guys live in Florida or New Jersey? 

[00:05:42] Lori Alhadeff: No, I grew up in New Jersey. I'm from New Jersey, but I live in Parkland, Florida. 

[00:05:48] Bob Gatty: Okay. All right. So tell me about ELISA's law and what it would do and what your success has been so far, because I understand several states have enacted it.

[00:06:04] Is that correct? Yes. 

[00:06:06] Lori Alhadeff: So we've passed ELISA's law now in six states. New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Texas, Florida and Utah. And then we also have funding a two and a half million dollars allocated for panic buttons in Oregon. And so we're very happy, excited about this success, getting Alyssa's law passed not only to keep Alyssa's name, her legacy forever.

[00:06:38] But I would say when every time that panic button is pushed, Alyssa is saving lives. And so we know that seconds really matter in a life threatening emergency situation. I say time equals life. And we need to know that help is on the way as quickly as possible so that they can take down the threat or come in and triage any of the victims.

[00:07:02] And if you think about it, just like in our banks, they've always had panic buttons. And so in our schools, this is A common sense safety layer of school safety that we can implement in all of our schools across the country to help protect them to help mitigate risk and loss and save lives in a emergency situation, whether it's a medical emergency, which we happen to have every day on our campus or the worst and active shooter situation.

[00:07:35] Bob Gatty: Is there any chance of this being enacted nationally by Congress? 

[00:07:40] Lori Alhadeff: Yeah, so we have ELISA's Act, and that is our federal bill, which this would be passed nationwide. And we want to see ELISA's law as a standard level of school safety protection in every school across this country. 

[00:07:58] Bob Gatty: What's going on in, in Congress to, are you working with people on the Hill now or what?

[00:08:05] Lori Alhadeff: Yeah, so Josh Gottheimer has filed ELISA's Act. And we have a lot of co sponsors, but we need more, so I feel like that's one thing that I always try to advocate for is that if you have a congressman or congresswoman that you know, and you're listening to this podcast right now, You can have them go to our website, MakeOurSchoolSafe. org, go to Alyssa's Law, and under Alyssa's Act, you can reach out to them and ask them to be a co sponsor for Alyssa's Act so we can get panic buttons in all schools across the country. 

[00:08:41] Bob Gatty: It just seems like such a common sense. You mentioned common sense, and it is. To have these panic buttons, it's just a simple thing.

[00:08:49] Wonder why they haven't done it in the past already. It just seems to make sense. 

[00:08:55] Lori Alhadeff: Absolutely. And it's really easy to implement. It can be an app on the teacher's phone. It could be a badge they wear around their neck with their I. D. Or it could be a hardwired panic button and it's not that expensive. It ranges from 2000 to 8,000 dollars per school per year, but it is so important and a life threatening emergency situation that we get help on the scene as quickly as possible. 

[00:09:24] Bob Gatty: Exactly. Okay. What are Moss Clubs, M O S S Clubs? What's that? 

[00:09:31] Lori Alhadeff: So our Moss Clubs are students, we have 24 Moss Clubs already, and we're the students in high schools that they help to create a culture of safety within their school.

[00:09:42] So they have monthly meetings, and they really are the voice for the safety specifically at their school, and it's how, It's not like we give them a curriculum, but it's really up to them to figure out what they want to do. We had a moss club in Colorado. They were able to get some funding, and they just went up to their capital to advocate for Alissa's law in Colorado.

[00:10:08] There was about 20 students, and so they're empowered to take action and to be a voice for school safety. And we'd like to say to the students that your voice is your power. And so if something is important to them and they bring it up to their principal, to say I don't feel comfortable with this door being locked, that we need to make sure all our doors are locked.

[00:10:33] That's a low hanging fruit, something that can be implemented today in every school. 

[00:10:40] Bob Gatty: What does MOSS stand for? M O S S. What's it stand for? 

[00:10:43] Lori Alhadeff: Make our schools safe. 

[00:10:46] Bob Gatty: It's probably self explanatory, but somebody wouldn't know. I didn't know. Can people get involved with MAS? 

[00:10:54] Lori Alhadeff: So you can go to our website, MakeOurSchoolSafe. org, and we have a volunteer handbook. Whether it's making a donation or volunteering, or helping to start a moss club at your local high school. We want to, we want people to sign up for our email list so they can get our weekly emails to learn more how to create a safer school, specifically at their school.

[00:11:22] Bob Gatty: Okay. Now you're accepting contributions, right? For what you're working on. 

[00:11:28] Lori Alhadeff: Yeah. So we have three major fundraisers a year. We have our gala, our Live for Alyssa gala, that's coming up. We have a golf fundraiser and a tennis fundraiser, but we're always accepting donations to help us fund our different school safety projects or our moss clubs and help us to pass Alyssa's law nationwide.

[00:11:50] Bob Gatty: So it's a, those would be tax deductible contributions, correct? 

[00:11:57] Lori Alhadeff: Correct. We're a 501c3, and so every donation is tax deductible. 

[00:12:02] Bob Gatty: Okay. Now when is your Live for Alyssa gala? That's on May 18th, coming up, right? 

[00:12:11] Lori Alhadeff: Yep, it's coming up May 18th. We're really excited. 

[00:12:15] Bob Gatty: Where? 

[00:12:16] Lori Alhadeff: It's at Meisner Country Club here in Florida.

[00:12:19] And we're actually sold out. Oh, good. But you can still make a donation. Okay. 

[00:12:25] Bob Gatty: So you're sold out. That's really good news. Wow, that's great. So I saw, you mentioned that you have some other fundraisers coming up, and I saw that online you have a soccer tournament being planned, and you've got some other events coming up too, right?

[00:12:43] Lori Alhadeff: Yeah, so we have our Play for 8 Cup, it's a soccer fundraiser, Alyssa was a soccer player, and she wore the number 8, so the soccer tournament is in honor of Alyssa, we say Play for 8. Play for Alyssa. 

[00:12:57] Bob Gatty: Okay. That's cool. All right. You sound like you know a little bit about marketing Do you 

[00:13:05] Lori Alhadeff: i'm I was a teacher before i'd be I actually was a stay at home mom for 14 years And then I ran for the school board.

[00:13:14] So i'm a school board member now But you know being with make our school safe, you know where i'm always, you know Whether it's Social media, Facebook, marketing, 

[00:13:25] Bob Gatty: our 

[00:13:26] Lori Alhadeff: website, we're very proactive, just always looking to try to improve and get our message out there and how we communicate. 

[00:13:33] Bob Gatty: You got some pretty creative projects going on.

[00:13:37] What is it that prompted you to, you could do fundraisers. About with anything, but you chose to do athletic events the gala, but soccer tournament, for example, and I think you said tennis too, right? So what prompted you to do these athletic events as fundraisers? 

[00:13:58] Lori Alhadeff: People like to do stuff, right?

[00:14:01] They just don't want to give money. They want to, whether it's playing golf for the day or being active in playing tennis we're in, we're trying to reach different groups of people. So some people like where the kids they'll play soccer and the women love to play tennis and then co ed play golf, but mostly men, but we know that we can reach different groups of people by having a variety of events like this and then our Live for Alyssa gala is formal events that Everybody and anybody can go to. 

[00:14:38] Bob Gatty: Hey Laurie, do you have help? Are you doing this all yourself or what? 

[00:14:43] Lori Alhadeff: No, I have help. I have staff and we also have a lot of volunteers Which is amazing, you know because It's, you can't do everything yourself.

[00:14:54] You have to have help, but it's I love our, the everybody that works for make our school safe and our volunteers are just incredible. 

[00:15:03] Bob Gatty: That's incredible. That's great. So I'd like your thoughts about the reluctance of Congress to take any sort of really meaningful actions to prevent tragedies like this from happening again.

[00:15:20] What are your thoughts about that? 

[00:15:24] Lori Alhadeff: It's been six years since the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and obviously we've had other school shootings. And when our tragedy happened, I, my mind was just thinking that Alyssa was safe. Like she knew what to do. She knew where to go.

[00:15:41] Help was on the way. And that's, I, when I found out she was shot, that in my mind, I was just thinking that Alyssa was at the hospital and that she was getting help. Okay. And so I never really knew the road, how like much Or how little action has been taken at the federal level. So it really, it hurts me.

[00:16:09] It pains me because there was other school shootings before MSD and we should have fixed this. We should have protected our kids in our schools. My daughter, Alyssa, should be, she would be turning 21 on May 1st, and she should be here and she should be in college. And it breaks my heart that layers of safety have not been put in place and weren't in place to protect Alyssa. And so that's why my 

[00:16:36] Bob Gatty: heart, man. 

[00:16:39] Lori Alhadeff: That's why, I'm working every day to do what I can do, one person, but know that I can make an impact and make a change and help to protect our kids in schools.

[00:16:50] Bob Gatty: You guys doing anything in terms of trying to lobby Congress to get them to take any kind of action that would, except for the Alyssa's Act that you're talking about, which would be a very big help. But are you doing anything else? Or is that kind of inside your purview to be working? 

[00:17:13] Lori Alhadeff: Yeah, it's I find that it's very important to be very specific with what actions that, that make our school safe is going to take in and put all of our efforts and resources in.

[00:17:26] And we've been very successful with passing Alyssa's law, going state by state and hopefully at the federal level. And. And then I feel like I've been as a school board member here, specifically working to protect the schools here in Broward County Broward County Public Schools.

[00:17:43] So we're just going to keep pushing and keep focusing on Alyssa's Law and our Moss Clubs, because I know our students are the ones that are making impact and making a difference to make their schools as safe as possible. 

[00:18:00] Bob Gatty: Okay. Is there anything you'd like to add? This went, Pretty quickly. Is there anything you'd like to add?

[00:18:08] Lori Alhadeff: Yeah. So I would just say that I think it's so important that people don't think, don't stay in a bubble, meaning that, I say that we were in a Parkland bubble where we never thought anything would happen to us. 

[00:18:22] Bob Gatty: Sure. 

[00:18:22] Lori Alhadeff: And there's been so much strong legislation that has been passed, specifically here in Florida, like the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas Act and Alyssa's Law, but you need to be involved, be active, know the statistics at your child's school, know what school safety measures are being put in place.

[00:18:44] Go to our website, MakeOurSchoolSafe. org and be an involved parent. I wasn't involved. I thought everything was great and safe at my kid's school. And unfortunately, that wasn't what happened. So I encourage parents to speak up, know what's happening and they can make a difference and impacts specifically at their child's school.

[00:19:10] Bob Gatty: Okay. All right. Lori, thank you so much. I don't really have any other questions for you. The podium is yours. If you've got anything else you'd like to add. 

[00:19:21] Lori Alhadeff: I think we really covered it all. 

[00:19:23] Bob Gatty: Okay, good.