There are many examples of fine educators who have devoted their energies to activist pursuits. One of these is Lori Alhadeff, a health and physical education teacher whose daughter was slain in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in 2018. In the wake of this tragedy, Lori has become an activist and outspoken advocate for gun control.
Lori Robinovitz was born on February 11, 1975, in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Health and Physical Education from the College of New Jersey, a public university in Ewing, New Jersey. She completed her Master’s degree in Education at Gratz College, a private Jewish university located in Melrose Park, Pennsylvania..
Once she earned her degrees, Lori taught for four years in New Jersey’s Union Township School District. There she also coached volleyball, softball, and cheerleading. She also worked for one year for the Windward School where she taught children with dyslexia and language-based learning disabilities and coached cheerleading. After she married Dr. Ilan Alhadeff and had three children, Lori became a stay-at-home mother and devoted many years to coaching soccer.
Tragically, Lori’s 14-year-old daughter, Alyssa Alhadeff, was one of 17 students and teachers killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on February 14, 2018. The next day, Lori appeared on CNN where she made an impassioned plea to President Donald Trump to increase school security. But Lori was not content to merely talk. She founded a nonprofit organization she named Make Our Schools Safe with the goal of providing safety strategies designed to meet the specific needs of each school. These strategies include installing metal detectors, bullet-resistant glass, and additional fencing and gates. The month after her daughter was killed, Lori traveled to Tallahassee to work towards the passage of Florida Senate Bill 7026, legislation which provided some statewide gun control and school safety measures. She also participated in the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, DC.
In August, 2018, Lori was elected to the Broward County School Board, which serves the sixth-largest district in the country. When the votes were counted, she had earned a whopping 65% of them.
Lori Alhadeff: a true Chalkboard Champion.