Page 7 - Florida Sentinel 5-7-19

State News
Florida Approves Bill Allowing Classroom Teachers To Be Armed
After two days of impas- sioned debate, Florida's House of Representatives passed a controversial bill on Wednesday that would permit classroom teachers to carry guns in schools. The bill was already approved by the Sen- ate; it now goes before Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republi- can, who is expected to sign it.
Last year, the legislature created a "guardian" program that allows districts to arm school staff, with the excep- tion of teachers who "exclu- sively perform classroom duties," according to the Miami Herald. The new bill would remove that exception.
Once the bill is enacted, it will be up to districts to decide whether they want to allow teachers to be armed. Many do not. As NPR member sta- tion WLRN reports, most of
Jaxon Creed puts an arm around Destiny Calero, a 2013 grad- uate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, at a memorial honoring those killed during a mass shooting there in February 2018. Florida's legislature has passed a bill allowing teachers to be armed. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
the classroom.
Under the program, teach-
ers would need to pass a 144- hour training course before they could be armed. Employ- ees at schools in 40 of the state's 67 counties have al- ready either enrolled in that course or plan to do so, Reuters reports, citing a spokesman for the Speaker of the House.
The Republican House majority rejected more than 20 amendments proposed by Democrats, including one that would have required implicit bias training for armed teach- ers.
"This allows school dis- tricts to add those classroom educators into the pool of guardian-eligible participants and allow them to go through the same process a guardian would go through," Petty
said, according to WLRN. "School districts need the flex- ibility to choose as they figure out for themselves what's the best way to protect kids in their districts."
The superintendent of schools in Broward County, where Parkland is located, said that the county will con- tinue to not arm teachers.
"The Broward County School Board voted on a reso- lution against arming teach- ers in March 2018," Robert Runcie said in a statement to the Herald. "We do not be- lieve arming teachers is the best way to make our schools safe."
Florida is among at least nine states that allow school employees to carry firearms on K-12 school grounds, ac- cording to the National Con- ference of State Legislatures.
Florida's school districts have declined to create guardian programs, opting instead to put law enforcement officers in each school. Just 25 of the state's 67 school districts have approved the guardian pro-
grams; many of them are in rural areas.
Debate over the bill was highly charged and often emotional, as lawmakers dis- cussed what could happen when teachers have guns in
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