John McDonald is the Chief Operating Officer for the National Council of School
Safety Leadership, a collaborative of the Missouri School Board Association and
Safe and Sound Schools.
Prior to joining the National Council, John was the Executive Director of School
Safety for Jeffco Public Schools in Colorado for 14 years and is recognized
internationally as the architect of the Columbine High School post tragedy
security and emergency management plan. Jeffco schools is a district of 83,000
students and 14, 000 employees at the foot of the Rockies in Colorado.
John has been recognized by the US Department of Education as a subject matter
expert on active shooter preparedness, emergency plan development and
school/law enforcement collaboration and following the Sandy Hook tragedy, was
invited to the White House to speak about creating the model active shooter
preparedness, response and recovery program in K-12 schools.
During his time with Jeffco Schools, John led Jeffco’s crisis response to several
tragedies including; the 2010 Deer Creek Middle School shooting for which he was
recognized as the School Safety Director of the Year, the 2012 kidnapping and
murder of 10-year-old Jessica Ridgeway while on her way to school, the 2014
tragedy when a high school student intentionally set himself on fire in front of
more than 200 classmates, and the 2019 20th Columbine memorial event
threatened by a 19 year old woman infatuated with the Columbine killers who
traveled from Florida to Colorado prepared to attack.
Throughout his career, John has supported school districts around the country
during or in the aftermath of tragedy including the 2013 Arapahoe High School
shooting, the Scream Bandit bank robber shooting at Sheridan High School in
2015 and the 2018 school shooting tragedies in Parkland Florida and Santa Fe,
Texas.
John has been recognized by CBS News as a Community Game Changer for his
work on the front lines protecting kids, and has collaborated on two FBI
documentaries “Echo’s of Columbine” and “In the Aftermath”, and was
highlighted on the Showtime documentary series Active Shooter, America under
Fire.
