Page 3 - BPS News March 2018

School safety, policy legisla on will impact Space Coast
By Ma Reed, BPS News
The Legislature passed two major policy bills that are likely to a ect Brevard Public Schools. Gov. Rick Sco signed both.
The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act
• Requires police resource o cers at all schools meaning BPS will have to add them at more than 40 elementary schools (All middle and high schools have resource o cers).
• Creates a recurring appropria on for mental-health services on campuses, something pursued by BPS students.
• Requires ac ve-shooter training and drills for students and sta .
• Makes it a second-degree felony to post on social media or otherwise transmit a threat of a mass shoo ng or act of terrorism.
• Creates “risk protec on orders,” which allow a court to prohibit a violent or mentally ill person from purchasing
or possessing a rearm (or any other weapon). If police or District Security believe a person poses a danger to themselves or others by possessing a rearm, they can pe on a court to have that person immediately surrender the weapon and prohibit them from buying or possessing others.
• Enables and funds a school-marshal program. It di ers slightly from Sheri Wayne Ivey’s proposal in that it would not allow teachers to par cipate unless they are JROTC instructors.
House Bill 7055, an omnibus educa on-policy bill
• Establishes the ‘Hope Scholarship’ program for students who are vic ms of bullying, violence or sexual o enses to transfer to another public school or to get a scholarship to a end a private school. Schools will have 14 days in which to complete bullying inves ga ons.
• Requires teachers’ unions to apply for recer ca on by the state if their paid membership drops below 50 percent of sta .
• Mandates paper-and-pencil standardized tests for 7th and 8th-grade language arts and math by the 2019-2020 school year.
• Changes some eligibility rules for charter schools.
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