Parkland Dad Launches National School Safety Dashboard After Son's Death

From Tragedy to Action

• 💔 Driven by the loss of his son Alex in the 2018 Parkland school shooting, Max Shar is dedicated to preventing future school violence.
• 💡 His son Alex is described as a guiding light and his legacy fuels this mission.

The National School Safety Dashboard

• 🚀 A first-of-its-kind nationwide school safety dashboard is being launched to provide parents with up-to-date safety information.
• 📊 The dashboard aims to make school safety data transparent, accessible, and searchable, allowing comparisons between schools and districts.
• 🎯 Key data points include total incidents and total suspensions, charting trends over time.

Addressing Data Challenges

• 🔍 Max Shar encountered difficulties when searching for data after the shooting, finding it in massive, hard-to-understand Excel spreadsheets.
• ⚠️ A significant challenge is that not all school sites in all states collect and share the same detailed data consistently, with some reporting "lots of zeros" or not reporting at all.
• 🗣️ The goal is to encourage schools to report accurate data and for policymakers to use the dashboard to direct resources to schools in need.

Advocacy and Future Goals

• 🤝 Through his nonprofit, Safe Schools for Alec, Max aims to work with every state to improve data accuracy and public accessibility.
• 🗓️ The dashboard is set to officially launch on Thursday, with a related fundraiser planned.
• 📍 Information on the launch and fundraiser can be found on the Local 10 website.