Page 4 - Florida Sentinel 3-13-18

State
After School Mass Shooting, Florida Legislature Passes Public Safety Act
Scenes from Feb. 14th shooting at Majorie Stoneman Douglas High School. The shooter, Nikolas Cruz, was a former student. Students throughout the country have had mass school walkouts and are demanding gun control changes.
Last Thursday, the Florida Legislature passed Senate Bill 7026, which is also known as the Marjory Stoneman Dou- glas Public Safety Act.
Governor Rick Scott
signed the bill into law on Friday.
SB 7026:
Creates “Risk Protec- tion Orders,” which allows a court to prohibit a violent or mentally ill individual from purchasing or possessing a firearm or any other weapon.
Allows law enforce-
ment to seize firearms when a person has been detained under the “Baker Act;”
Requires all individu- als purchasing firearms to be 21-years-old or older, exceptions are for law enforcement or military members;
Establishes enhanced criminal penalties for in- dividuals who make threats to schools, such as social media threats of shootings or bombings;
Bans sale or posses- sion of bump stocks;
Creates a 3-day wait- ing period for all firearms sales;
Keeping Students Safe
Provides $162 million for safe-school officers and re- quires a safe-school officer at each school in the state. Safe- school officers must be sworn law enforcement officers.
Creates the Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program under the purview of locally-elected Sheriff’s of- fices. Participation is vol- untary does not allow classroom teachers to carry firearms with excep- tions;
It also creates a Office of Safe Schools on the state level that oversees emergency planning and prevention ef- forts of all schools;
It sets aside $6.2 mil- lion this year and $500,000 thereafter for school mental health services;
The bill appropriates $97.5 million to hire po- lice officers for every public school;
Under the bill, schools will be required to con- duct regular active shooter drills;
Makes it possible for some retired law en- forcement personnel to become School Resource Officers;
Creates a 16-member Marjory Stoneman Dou- glas High School Public Safety Commission to im- prove school safety;
It allocates $25 mil- lion to build another structure to replace the one in which the shooting took place;
Establishes a new, anonymous K-12 “Fortify FL” suspicious activity re- porting app, which would allow students and members of the community to anony- mously report dangerous
threats;
Provides $75 million for dedicated mental health counselors to pro- vide direct counseling serv- ices to students and youth;
Requires every school in Florida to have a threat assessment team;
Requires crisis inter- vention training for all school resource officers;
Establishes the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Com- mission to investigate system failures in the Parkland school shooting and prior mass violence incidents and develop recommendations for system improvements; and
Provides $28 million
to expand mental health serv- ice teams statewide to serve youth and young adults by providing counseling, crisis management and other criti- cal mental health services.
FYI
Home Safety Reminders After Turning Back The Clocks
Sunday marked the beginning of Daylight Saving Time, and it’s a great opportunity to make sure your smoke alarm hasn’t expired, install fresh batteries, and test them and carbon monox- ide (CO) detectors. When functional, these devices can double a family’s chance of surviving a home fire or an unsafe carbon monoxide level.
Hillsborough County Fire Rescue reminds residents to test and replace batteries in smoke alarms and CO detectors to protect their families and homes. If it’s time to replace an expired alarm, Fire Rescue recommends a 10-year lithium battery alarm. It’s a cost-effective, easy, and safe way to ensure your batteries stay fresh for the life of the alarm.
PAGE 4 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 2018