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 aboutprotecting 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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