My question for the reasonable reader: Should there be a gun on campus?
- If you answer yes and a school safety officer shoots someone, will you feel culpable?
- If you answer no and someone else shoots someone, will you wonder if the armed school safety officer could have stopped it?
Do you agree that people who don’t vote don’t have a right to complain? But how much is required of citizens after we’ve voted? Do we need to keep an eye on what our elected officials are doing?
The state legislators passed a bill that says that there must be a gun on all K-12 public school campuses. It’s 2018 SB 7026. How do you feel about that? Do you see the difference between these two different position statements?
1. Oppose any effort to arm teachers, or anyone who is not a law enforcement officer.
2. Oppose the arming of teachers in public schools.
The difference is that #2 allows for school safety officers (in addition to police officers) to carry a gun on campus. There are rules in place for training these school safety officers. The school district is required to have a gun on campus by state legislators. They have basically three choices as to who can carry that gun
1. A teacher
2. A dedicated school safety officer
3. A police officer
Quote from bill analysis of SB 7026:
[The school safety officer] may carry concealed, approved firearms on campus. Only concealed carry safety holsters and firearms approved by the sheriff may be used under the program. … A school safety officer has the authority to carry weapons when performing his or her official duties.
The Duval school district was sued because they chose to satisfy the state law by arming school safety officers instead of police officers. The school district won the suit. I assume the plaintiffs didn’t want to remain silent. They didn’t want to feel culpable if a school safety officer shot someone. Their conscious is clear?
Link to article about it:
https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/courts/2021/02/19/court-rejects-jacksonville-challenge-armed-school-guardians/4504650001/
School district superintendents walk a thin line. We may or may not learn more later, but for now here’s what we seem to know:
The schools superintendent in Broward County, Fla. had spent years battling accusations tied to his leadership before and after the Parkland school shooting — and the indictment, he claimed, was simply another politically motivated attack tied to the massacre. As parents and officials continue to point fingers over the failures that preceded the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, a wide-ranging grand jury investigation has been tasked with probing “possible failures in following school-related safety laws and moving funds solicited for school safety initiatives to other areas of need,” according to Florida state officials.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/04/28/florida-broward-parkland-runcie-resigns/
References
Link to bill 2018 SB 7026:
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2018/7026
Excerpt from Florida statute 1006.12
Safe-school officers at each public school.—For the protection and safety of school personnel, property, students, and visitors, each district school board and school district superintendent shall partner with law enforcement agencies or security agencies to establish or assign one or more safe-school officers at each school facility within the district, including charter schools. … A school safety officer has the authority to carry weapons when performing his or her official duties.
1006.12 says each school must have one or more safe-school officers but they can be
(1) SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER
(2) SCHOOL SAFETY OFFICER
(3) SCHOOL GUARDIAN.
(4) SCHOOL SECURITY GUARD
I think (1) and (2) are both law enforcement officers.
(3) is defined below and I think Duval is doing (3) (b) ONLY and not (3)(a).
Detailed explanation (3) SCHOOL GUARDIAN:
At the school district’s or the charter school governing board’s discretion, as applicable, pursuant to s. 30.15, a school district or charter school governing board may participate in the Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program to meet the requirement of establishing a safe-school officer. The following individuals may serve as a school guardian, in support of school-sanctioned activities for purposes of s. 790.115, upon satisfactory completion of the requirements under s. 30.15(1)(k) and certification by a sheriff:(a) A school district employee or personnel, as defined under s. 1012.01, or a charter school employee, as provided under s. 1002.33(12)
(a), who volunteers to serve as a school guardian in addition to his or her official job duties; or
(b) An employee of a school district or a charter school who is hired for the specific purpose of serving as a school guardian.
My understanding is the school district got more money if they agreed to participate in the school guardian program. This article says not every county is participating in the guardian program:
http://www.fldoe.org/safe-schools/guardian-program.stml
Unite Us Do Not Divide Us 