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DeSantis Signs Bill To Arm Teachers; Escambia Hiring Armed Security Officers Instead
May 9, 2019
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a bill that would allow Florida school districts to arm teachers.
The measure is an extension of the guardian program that created after the Parkland massacre in 2018. Some employees, but not teachers, were allowed to carry guns on school property after receiving proper training.
The new law signed Wednesday will allow classroom teachers to also carry weapons but only with approval by local school boards.
Escambia County Superintendent Malcolm Thomas has said he has no intent to arm teachers. Instead, the Escambia County School District is hiring its own force of campus security officers (CSO) to protect elementary school beginning with the next school years. Middle and high schools will continue to have school resource officers, which are Escambia County Sheriff’s Office deputies.
“The district will be working with the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office to ensure high quality individuals with the appropriate skills, temperament and abilities are selected,” Thomas said when the program was announced.
The CSOs will have no law enforcement authority, except to the extent necessary to prevent or abate an active assailant incident”, according to the district. The district has tried using off-duty law enforcement officers in elementary schools this school year, but that has proved difficult to provide full coverage.
“We are hoping retired military and retired law enforcement officers, who have maintained their weapons’ permits and skills, will see this opportunity as a new way to continue to serve our community and protect our students,” said Thomas.
Funding for ongoing salary of the CSOs will come from dedicated “Safe Schools Categorical” funding which is separate from instructional or teacher salary funding. The district will not hire more CSOs than it can afford under this separate funding mechanism.
The CSOs will not be placed charter schools such as Byrneville Elementary School or the Beulah Academy of Science at the district’s expense. However, the CSOs will be made available to charter schools if they choose to pay for them.
Campus Security Officers will be required to also complete the fingerprinting and drug screening requirement that ECSD requires of all school district employees prior to being placed in a school. Those selected will have a starting salary at $30,600, plus benefits, for a 10 month position.
Comments
10 Responses to “DeSantis Signs Bill To Arm Teachers; Escambia Hiring Armed Security Officers Instead”
As a third grade teacher in the county, I am grateful that more security officers will be on campus. It is a dangerous time and it will make us all feel safer. I am also grateful that I am not having to handle a weapon. I have no desire to have a weapon in the classroom with me and the children, or to have the responsibility of keeping it away from the children.
Whether you have teachers armed or not, this should not be public knowledge. If one does not know who might be armed is more of deterrent for would-be fame seekers.
Look, nobody wants to talk about the elephant in the room and doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. With that said, if teachers want to volunteer, can pass the screening, and successfully complete the required training, why not allow them to be added in the protection of their school? This surely is better than the alternative that we have now of cowering in a corner and hoping that a security officer by him or herself will stop the assault. Resource officers are great to have on campus and in my opinion increase safety, however; they are a single point failure in the system to protect students and staff because when they’re not on campus there is no protection. How many more kids will have to throw themselves at a gunman before the nay sayers will come to some sense of sanity when it comes to protecting our students, faculty and staff. This new Florida law is in response to the inept ideal that having a SRO is the end all to making everything great and safe at a school.
THANK YOU,MR. THOMAS, FOR BRINGING SOME SANITY TO THIS ASININE NEW LAW…ITS NOT LIKE THE CLASSROOM TEACHER HAS SO MUCH TIME ON HIS/ HER HANDS THAT THEY CAN DEVOTE TO POLICING THEIR SCHOOLS!!
Rather than creating their own police force, and taking on the problems associated with such a move, The school board should offer to share the expense of putting certified deputes in the schools, and the Sheriff handle the management and assume the liability of these deputes The school system knows a lot about education, but little about security. Let the professionals handle it.
Well, Josh, here’s a fact for you: In the last 30 years, while Private Gun ownership and lawful concealed carry have skyrocketed (more guns…), the Violent Crime Rate and Gun Homicide Rates have dropped, by over 30% across the US. Violent Crime and Homicide rates are at historic LOW levels, so it seems our approach IS working.
Does anyone have contact info on where to apply for these security jobs?
The new CSO program seems like a much safer bet then arming underpaid overworked teachers that have a frustrating job as it is. I have horrific images of little bobby or little jane mouthing off to the teacher on the wrong day at the wrong time and boom just like that kids got a gun in their face or worse. Our kids are taught to trust their teacher but teachers are only human just like the rest of us that trust should not be tested by a firearm.
Good job Mr. Thomas kudos to you no matter what anyone else says you are a great superintendent!!
Because the best way to combat guns is more guns. And when the bad guys starting bringing more guns, fight that back with even more guns and so on and so forth.
I think it would be a good idea for those in the security program to undergo a psychological evaluation.