Pinellas County Schools will not show "active assailant" videos to elementary students after listening to concerns from parents.
The district had planned to show short videos depicting Homeland Security's recommended "Run-Hide-Fight" approach to dealing with an active shooter. But, on Monday morning, the district changed its policy and confirmed it would no longer be presenting the footage to children that young.
The videos will instead be reserved for middle and high school students.
"This decision was made in an abundance of caution and with the needs of our students in mind," district spokesperson Lisa Wolf wrote in an email. "The elementary videos will remain available to teachers as an additional training tool and are available for parents who wish to help their student understand the concepts their child will practice in school."
Parents wishing to view the videos can find links below:
"Parents know their child best, so they’re going to know what their child needs the best," Wolf told 10News in an interview Monday. "So, if they would like to show the video, we want to make it available to them; but we’re not saying ‘you must show your children this video at home.' We really want it to be their choice based on what they’re comfortable with based on their particular student.”
The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, which was passed after the Valentine's Day massacre that killed 17 people in Parkland, put new expectations in place for Florida school districts.
Districts like Pinellas have added monthly lockdown drills and beefed up security staffs. Pinellas County principals will notify families the weeks their students will participate in monthly drills required by the state.
Pinellas County Schools Police Chief Luke Williams says sadly times have changed.
"Unfortunately, there are things that we have to make sure that we keep up with and we make sure our students and our staffs are aware of; and some of those topics won’t be easy topics to discuss and talk about. But, we need to have those discussions nonetheless," Williams said. "And, I can tell you there was a lot of thought and process that went into the age appropriateness of the videos and the drills that we have, and we’ll continue to look at the age appropriateness of how we do things.”
Below is a video overview of the changes Pinellas County Schools are making for the 2018-2019 school year.
►Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the 10News app now.
Have a news tip? Email desk@wtsp.com, or visit our Facebook page or Twitter feed.
