State Sen. Bill
Galvano, R-Bradenton, said he wants schools to have the funding to increase the
number of armed school resource officers in schools and to “harden”
their entrances after 17 people were killed at a Parkland high school
Wednesday.
In a statement
released Thursday, Galvano said the dozens of people wounded or killed after a
19-year-old former Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School student open
fired was “nothing short of devastating and tragic. My heart breaks for the
students, families, administrators, first responders and law enforcement
officers and all who have been impacted by the shooting.”
The Senate
president-designate offered a plea to his colleagues in the legislature on what
lawmakers could do in the wake of the shooting.
“While currently we have armed resource
officers at a number of our schools coupled with other law enforcement
personnel, we must identify where the gaps exist and immediately work to fill
them,” Galvano said in the letter.
He also called for
“an appropriation of $100 million for mental health screening, counseling and
training,” and to make sure schools are using security audits put in place
after the Sandy Hook shooting. He also pushed for a discussion how the shooter
was able to get a gun.
“(We) must have the
conversation about how this individual, with noted and apparent mental health
issues, was able to obtain a firearm such as this and discuss measures to
prevent this from happening again,” he said. “The safety of our children in schools should be the No. 1 priority for all of us in public service.
Enough is enough.”
State Sen. Greg
Steube, R-Sarasota — who has this session pushed bills to allow concealed
weapons in courthouses and churches — said
he would be re-introducing a school safety bill that would take Galvano’s
suggestion about school resource officers to the next level.
The bill, which he
said had been shot down over the past six years, would offer school districts
the opportunity to appoint “schoolsafety officers” that would have more training than a school
resource officer, active shooter training and prior law enforcement or military
experience. Districts could establish certain policies like storing their
firearms in a safe on school property.
Manatee County School
Board Chairman Scott Hopes said these proposals aren’t “about guns. It’s about
protecting students and staff when they’re in our schools.”
The school district
is “all hands on deck” in identifying safety needs and will have a workshop to
address funding for more school resource officers and work to assess the
district’s mental health services.
“There are some
things we can do now,” Hopes said. “There are other things that are going to
take help from the legislature.” BY HANNAH MORSE
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