The state law is designed to increase school safety and prevent more school shootings. State lawmakers this session adopted the commission’s recommendations and expanded the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act. Made up of 15 people, including law enforcement officers, educators, mental health experts, elected officials and relatives of victims, only one father of a murdered student voted against allowing teachers to carry handguns. The commission did recommend arming school teachers. It also established the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, which released its 458-page report on the last day of 2018. It created the guardian program but didn't go so far as to call for arming teachers. They passed school safety reforms March 9, 2018, just three weeks after the Parkland high school massacre. Meanwhile, 37 school shootings happened in 2018 alone.Ī year ago, fed-up Florida lawmakers decided to do something about it. Two student shooters gunned down a dozen of their fellow students and a teacher. Six school shootings occurred in 1999, including the one at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. The massacre sparked national outrage about school shootings that have become more and more common during the past two decades. The 19-year-old, who'd been expelled for behavioral problems, blended in with fleeing students and left the school, but authorities eventually arrested Cruz in a nearby Coral Springs neighborhood. 14, 2018, in Parkland, Florida, when former Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Nikolas Cruz activated a fire alarm and then used an AR-15 rifle to mow down 17 students and staff and injure another 17. One of the deadliest school shootings in United States history happened Feb. But Charlie Morse, the school distdrict's school safety specialist, is quick to add, “We’re not looking for teachers.” Walton County began advertising in May to hire five guardians. ![]() The Okaloosa County School Board is one of the latest in Florida to give thumbs up to the guardian program at a rough-and-tumble meeting May 28. It allows teachers for the first time in history to pack heat to improve safety at schools.Īt least 32 of the state's 67 school boards have accepted the Legislature's offer and voted to implement the Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program, which lets teachers who complete local sheriff’s office's training earn certification to bring firearms to schools.Īll the school boards from Escambia to Bay counties, with the exception of Santa Rosa, have approved the guardian program. However, Florida lawmakers passed a bill last session that Gov. ![]() FORT WALTON BEACH - In years past when children returned to school after a summer vacation, they'd find their teachers armed with antibacterial wipes, whiteboard markers and other items essential to the classroom - not handguns.
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