Praying for the Precious Families in Florida

All of our hearts are heavy and grieved by the horrific events that occurred this afternoon at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.  

On difficult days like these, we eagerly seek God’s guidance and wisdom in trying to best understand and explain how and why something like this can happen through such a sick person and against innocent children.  As believers in Jesus Christ, we know that the depravity of man and the absence of hope and purpose in a person’s environment can lead to emptiness and desperate measures – and in this case, profound tragedy and loss.  Let’s pray that our sovereign God will provide hope and strength for these parents in their deepest mourning.

Even on this difficult day, please be assured how serious we take the safety of every one of your children.  We are a close knit family community school and are very aware of what is going on in the lives of our families.  We are not left unprotected in our buildings and indeed have appropriate procedures and key personnel in place.   Because of our strong relationship with the High Point Police Department and local SWAT team, we have been fortunate to be the host site for training sessions in our building, regularly reviewing our critical incident procedures, installing new video surveillance that will tie into their system, and receiving continual oversight and input from the police department.  As you are aware, we also have a police officer present at the school throughout the day.  We continue to learn and look for ways to be even stronger in this area every time a new shooting occurs.

Our motive in sharing this information with you at this time is to assure you of how critical we view our responsibility in protecting your children.  The administrative team continually reviews our current procedures, re-evaluates the entire facility, and seeks additional staff training with campus security in mind.  Please feel free to contact me or one of the principals if you have any questions with which we can be of assistance.  In the meantime, please join us in praying for God’s leading and understanding for these precious families in the Parkland community.

Dr. Rob Brown
Head of School