ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A recent statewide school safety survey shows most schools in Florida are complying with state law as it relates to safety.
The Director of the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Safe Schools presented the survey results to members of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission on Wednesday.
Of the state’s 3,753 schools, there are law enforcement officers assigned to more than 3,000 of them. There are also more than 1,300 guardians.
The commission has previously suggested that some schools are so large that more than one officer or guardian should be assigned to the campus, but a specific student-to-officer ratio has not been determined.
Director Tim Hay says the survey results revealed 39 percent of schools with officers assigned do have a policy or written procedure in place in the event the safe-school officer is absent and that the number of counties that allow guardians has increased since 2019.
One area that is a work in progress is making sure guardians have access to a law enforcement radio. For schools that only use a guardian, 18 districts reported that at least one guardian has one. About half of the districts did not.
MSD Commission Chair and Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri says that’s a legitimate issue and says districts should not let cost be a factor.
The director does expect Alyssa’s Law, which requires all schools to have panic systems in place by this fall, will help in addressing some security concerns.
An assistant special agent in charge at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement says there’s been an increase in the use of the Fortify Florida app since it was rolled out in 2018.
Already in January, there were more than 400 tips reported. The majority, though, have not been school safety-related. Some teachers or students get on the app just to see if it works.
Users are anonymous, so there's no way to know how the follow up on the tips. Some districts like Pinellas are also utilizing other safety apps like Say Something or Student Protect.
There's also a statewide effort for law enforcement to create behavioral threat assessment teams. The Tampa Bay area will have one, along with Orlando and Fort Myers to start, and then the initiative will expand out.
These teams will be collaborating among agencies so there are not law enforcement silos. Creating a standardized behavioral threat assessment tool was one of the recommendations that the commission gave lawmakers, which was later passed as part of Senate Bill 7030 in 2019.
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