Skip to main content

Reviews Worth Sharing: Focusing on School Safety After Parkland (The Heritage Foundation, March 2018)

The Heritage Foundation’s report, Focusing on School Safety After Parkland, was published following the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The report highlights a handful of cherry-picked, pro-gun research but depends mainly on anecdotal evidence to support its findings that teachers should be armed, schools hardened, family and social services expanded, and discriminatory discipline practices de-emphasized. Yet the report’s credibility is harmed by the limited and biased presentation of research evidence and the omission of educator and student perspectives. The problems with supporting research and the questionable methods prevent generalizability and call the paper’s usefulness into question. The end result is a poorly refereed, one-sided defense of positions taken by gun advocates. That said, the report does provide conservative perspectives that can serve as a springboard for broader discussions about the impact of value-laden policies on promoting a broader sense of safety in schools.

Document Reviewed:

Focusing on School Safety After Parkland

John Malcolm & Amy Swearer
The Heritage Foundation