On Thursday, March 12, the progressive grassroots community organization SOMA Justice hosted a screening of the HBO Documentary “Thoughts and Prayers” at the Maplewood Library, with a panel discussion on the film’s theme of the burgeoning school security industry growing out of the ongoing national school shooting crisis.
The panel consisted of South Orange Mayor Sheena Collum, Maplewood Deputy Mayor Malia Herman, Moms Demand Action Lead Member Brittnee Cann, Columbia High School Principal Frank Sanchez, and South Orange-Maplewood Director of School and Community Safety Paul Morgan. The panel was moderated by SOMA Justice founding Executive Director Dr. Khadijah Costley White.
The movie, which was released in 2025, left many adults in the room teary-eyed.
“It’s heartbreaking because these kids, they’re growing up in this environment, and this trauma,” Malia Herman said. “We’re failing them. Our country is failing them.”
CHS Principal Frank Sanchez expressed his thoughts on New Jersey gun policy and what, on the national level, he believes is a policy failure.
“We’re fortunate,” Sanchez said. “We live in New Jersey, and we have different gun rules. But unfortunately, those rules are being appealed to the Supreme Court. They’re looking to see if our sensible, but what some may argue, strict gun rules can be appealed.”
A prominent theme in the documentary is the catalyst that the rise of school shootings has provided for security industries. “Thoughts and Prayers” showcased many technologies that have arisen out of the crisis, ranging from bulletproof desks, to robotic dogs meant to distract intruders, to grotesquely accurate bullet wound body stickers that schools could use in drills to mimic real life scenarios.
Brittnee Cann said, “On the other side of human suffering, there’s money. There’s profit somewhere. And I just keep thinking, ‘Wow. The only thing more American than guns is capitalism.’”
Within her organization, Cann has been able to make change. She said, “The reason why I wear this pin and I do this work is because I’ve seen what the Moms Demand Action in every town is doing for gun safety and how it’s working.”
The bulk of the panel conversation was about lockdown drill policy within the district.
The district website states that, “We conduct state-mandated emergency drills – both a fire drill, and a security drill – at each school every month. Security drills include non-fire evacuations and lockdown situations. We practice a different security drill each month, repeating them as necessary, to ensure that each security drill is practiced at least twice a year and that students and staff know what to do to protect themselves in various situations.”
One change that has been made recently as a result of SOMA Justice advocacy is policy regarding the advance notice that is given prior to drills.
“I want to pat us on the back, because a lot of the advocacy for these Board of Education policies started here. We were one of the first districts in the state to change them,” Costley White said.
The SOMA Justice leader shared that in places where school shootings are more frequent, like Florida and Texas, it is more common for advanced notice to be given so there is never a question of whether police cars at a school are there because of a shooter or not. Costley White said, “It was interesting to me, in a place like this, where the ideas were taken more seriously, we weren’t giving people advanced notice about drills.”
Parents in the room expressed concern with the length of drills and how teachers, police officers, and administration handle the (possibly hidden) anxiety that kids have about active shooters and guns.
One adult in the audience said, “As a parent, I just think that we need to be very thoughtful in our training and all of this, because perhaps we’re not even aware of what our kids are carrying onto.”
Paul Morgan elaborated on recent training for staff. “We just had training last week where we trained all the teachers on crisis prevention, intervention, mental health, first aid, and how to address students. That’s the foundation of our training,” he said.
Morgan, along with Collum and Herman, also spoke about training and protocol for police officers- referencing a specific organization, the “I Love U Guys” Foundation, through which Maplewood and South Orange police recently underwent Standard Reunification Method training.
“I’m proud to say that we will be fully implementing the standard response protocol in September,” Morgan said.
Towards the end of the discussion was a brutally honest conversation about the Maplewood-South Orange community, and how (like it or not) the 2nd amendment exists here too.
“The reality is, in South Orange, we have a lot of guns in our town,” Sheena Collum said. “It’s interesting how when people get afraid, they purchase guns. When we hit the pandemic – exacerbated also with what happened with the murder of George Floyd, we went from 50 applications [a year] the prior year to over 250 the next year.”
Malia Herman agreed. “We’re seeing the same thing in Maplewood,” she said.
As people were walking out, Moms Demand Action handed out fliers about gun storage in homes.
“We passed an ordinance last year that requires everyone in Maplewood who owns a gun to secure that gun when it is not in use,” said Malia Herman.
Maplewood and South Orange, like the rest of the country, are grappling with the active shooter crisis and student safety, with mental health and easy access to guns. SOMA Justice hopes to have more panel discussions and reach more people, especially students.
“Thought and Prayers” is available to stream on HBO Max.
Ella Levy is a 12th grade student at Columbia High School and is working with Village Green as a paid student freelancer through a grant from the NJ Civic Information Consortium.
