Every parent asks it
at drop-off and
never says it out loud.

Schools have safety plans. Drills happen. Doors lock. What’s missing isn’t policy — it’s the parent on the other end of it, unsure what they’re allowed to ask, unsure who’s listening, unsure whether raising a concern makes them “that parent.”

Katherine has spent two decades on the other side of that silence — briefing superintendents, training officers, sitting across from families after the worst has already happened. What she kept hearing wasn’t anger. It was a quieter thing: parents who cared enormously, are afraid and still don’t know where to stand.

The data backs up the unease: the average number of PreK-12 active shooter incidents per year has climbed 39% since 2013, and casualties over the last eleven years have more than doubled the total from the fourteen years before that. The trend line isn’t the whole story — but it’s part of why this book exists now.

Her next book is built for that parent. Not a policy manual. Not a scare tactic. A way back into the conversation — with the school, with your kids, with yourself.