The way some school districts are choosing to comply with bolstered safety measures has U.S. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Florida) upset. Scott explained the problem to the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on enhancing school safety.
Ever since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, the Florida legislature has been working to tighten school security. Before former Governor Rick Scott left for Congress he signed legislation doing just that, “The legislation we passed required there be a public safety officer at every school.”
But Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri says not every district throughout the state agrees with the legislation, “as we’re sitting here today where we’re seeing the most voids with it as far as compliance would be in South Florida. Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and there are some others.”
He says Orange County just met the standard of compliance a few months ago. He says lawyers are to blame.
“So you have lawyers who are part of the problem. And I say that as a lawyer because they’re not doing their representing when they interpret words of assign, and they go through these machinations and say, ‘well assign can mean you don’t have to have somebody actually there.’ You know, tell that to one of these parents,” said Gualtieri.
Thursday Governor Rick Scott also sent a letter to Florida school superintendents urging them to comply with the state law.
