The Safe Zone Solution: Protecting Children from School Shootings
Genesis of a Solution
One evening in 2023, Safe Zone Solution founder Alex Sol was shaken to his core by the appearance on the evening news of Miah Cerrillo, a 10-year old survivor of a mass school shooting. Mia recounted how she survived the slaughter of her classmates by covering herself in the blood of her best friend & playing dead.
Miah Cerillo, a survivor of the Robb Elementary Mass Shooting in Uvalde, Texas, found herself in her classroom when the unthinkable happened.
Miah and other children were hiding as they had been instructed to do according to the school's Standard Response Protocol but tragically, 19 children were not as fortunate as Mia. They lost their lives during the 77-minute shooting massacre that unfolded in the classroom.
Alex was galvanized by this story, along with all the other accounts of the school shootings that have swept our country. A father of two school-age daughters, Alex was determined to do something about our national scourge.
What can one father accomplish that will make a difference?
The Safe Zone Solution
In October of 2023, Alex and Natalie Sol founded The Safe Zone Solution, a non-profit 501(c)3 organization. The vision animating the Safe Zone Solution is the conviction that the way to curb the epidemic of school shootings is to make it virtually impossible for a shooter to enter the school in the first place. However, if a shooter where to get a weapon into the school, the SZS design transforms classroom into true safe zones instead of the current school’s design–which turns the classroom itself into lethal traps for our children, students and teachers.
We seek to have the Safe Zone Solution's safety features implemented in school emergency building code legislation, in the same way that fire and earthquake safety features are universally mandated to protect students in the event of an emergency.
SO WHAT IS THE SAFE ZONE SOLUTION?
The Safe Zone Solution has arrived at a 3-legged approach to prevent these tragedies:
THE FIRST: a high level polycarbonate bullet-resistant glazing is placed on all exterior vestibule entry doorways, interior glass wall panels and windows attached to office spaces and classrooms.
THE SECOND: Every doorway to every classroom will be bullet-resistant, and fitted with a bullet resistant center glass panel.
THE THIRD- The Safe Zone Solution also provides the latest state-of-the-art detection systems, placed in selected entryways, designed to discreetly identify the exact location of any weapon, & notifying staff without the perpetrator’s knowledge.
The present lack of such protections benefit school shooters who can come to school knowing they will easily find potential victims, with little or no resistance. This dynamic can and MUST be reversed!
We know that building safety code reforms have saved thousands of lives. For example, following the tragic Lady of the Angels school fire in Chicago in 1958, killing 90 children and 3 nuns, sweeping changes in building codes were implemented.
Within a year, over 1,600 schools were retrofitted with fire sprinklers, emergency evacuation doors, and other safety measures. Since then, there have been no fire-related deaths in any school for over 60 years. In stark contrast, hundreds of children have been murdered inside classrooms that lack adequate safety features to protect against school shootings.
Our organization seeks to mandate that all schools be retrofitted with ballistic-resistant safety measures, providing protection not currently afforded students and educators.
To make this vision a reality, we are launching a national GoFundMe campaign. The funds raised will support operational costs, travel to schools for installations, and the hiring of grant writers to secure necessary funding for schools who want to request the implementation of the Safe Zone Solution at no cost to the schools.
Help us realize our vision of implementing The Safe Zone Solution, and having these measures codified in school building construction codes nationwide.
Your support will be greatly appreciated!
The Safe Zone Solution
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