Duval County Florida school district to hire 103 armed safety assistants
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. April 19 2018 – More than 100 people will soon be hired by Duval County Public Schools to become “school safety assistants,” armed positions aimed at protecting schools, if a plan is eventually approved by the school board.
The plan was one of five introduced at a Duval County School Board workshop Tuesday morning.
It’s part of the Guard Program through the Florida safe schools legislation that passed after the Feb. 14 mass shooting at a Parkland high school. It requires there be at least one armed guard protecting every public school in Florida.
In Jacksonville, Spring Park Elementary School is one of 103 elementary schools that could soon have a school safety assistant.
Currently, elementary schools are the only ones in Duval County without someone armed on campus, as armed officers can be found at Duval County middle and high schools.
But on the first day of the 2018-2019 school year, that will change, if the school board approves the recommended plan to put an armed employee at every single public school in the county.
If approved, 103 school safety assistants will be hired to work 10 months a year. They’ll have to pass background checks, random screenings, psychological evaluations and other tests. They’ll undergo 160 hours of training before starting the job, as well as continuous weapon inspection and firearm training.
Additionally, each will have a firearm, a bulletproof vest and other equipment similar to the kind used by a sworn officer.
Jacksonville Undersheriff Pat Ivey said the plan is similar to the Guardian Program, except those hired as new school safety assistants would not be current school employees.
“The school board had concerns with arming teachers and things of that nature,” Ivey said. “So they’ve come up with an alternative to hire positions that would be the safety assistant position. (That) is what they’re going to call them, so they will be new positions.”
Duval County School Board Chairwoman Paula Wright said, with budget constraints, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and the Duval County School Police Department came up with the best plan possible.
“They will not have any interaction, or limited interaction, with students and staff,” Wright said. “But they’re going to be constantly moving around on the perimeters to make certain that the entire school is safe from attack.”
The new school safety assistants would not be able to make arrests or Baker Act a student.
If the school board approves the plan at its meeting on May 1, the Duval County school district will be looking to hire school safety assistants from May 1 until June 4, and them trained from June through August. The official start day will be Aug. 13, the first day of school in Duval County.
The school district is short on funding from the state by about $1.2 million, which Wright said it will have to prioritize the budget in the coming weeks.
Also, the school district is working to clarify whether charter schools would have the armed school safety assistants. The legislation did give charter schools funding for the safe schools portion of the legislation, but the charter schools ultimately will decide if they will follow the same plan as the school district.
News4JAX
