ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — There's a new model at public and charter schools in Florida for assessing school threats.
This plan will try to help solve issues before there's even a threat.
It went into place at the start of the new year. Kids went back to school on Monday and an issue at the top of the list for many parents like Joyce Schweinsberg is school safety.
“I just feel like you can take all the precautions and there's still going to be someone that can just walk in,” Schweinsberg said.
Schweinsberg’s son is in preschool.
She worries about what problems other students might be bringing into the classroom.
“My mom when she was a teacher, she always said the hardest part was working with the parents because they always thought their kids were the perfect angels,” Schweinsberg said.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri calls this grievance.
“They're mad or upset because either they didn't get on the football team, they got a bad grade or a teacher disciplined them, or their parents are on them about something," he said. "They don't know how to handle it and it results in them going out and retaliating in a very serious way."
The sheriff said all threats are taken seriously, but educators will now have more say on whether the threat is credible or if the student needs guidance like mental health counseling.
“Depending on the level of threat, the level of threat gets identified as low, medium or high," Gualtieri said. "If it's low then it's monitored for a certain period of time, if it's high then they're monitored for a greater period of time."
This model includes a school-based threat assessment team at every public and charter school in Florida that will include a law enforcement officer, mental health counselor, school administrator and teacher.