Days after the grand jury criticized the school districts of Florida for the lack of security measures in schools, the school district of Broward county gets ready with hundreds of new employees to enhance school security.
Broward district has planned for over five hundred new personnel for additional security in schools. Unarmed security will be provided to elementary schools and armed specialists in large middle schools and high schools.
These measures are taken in light of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in February 2018. That tragedy took the lives of seventeen people when a gunman opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle. This shooting was the deadliest in the history of schools in the United States.
The increased funding for school security
Following the massacre last year, a referendum was passed to raise ninety-three million USD a year for four years. From this nineteen million USD would be used each year for security in schools.
The plan requires there to be one “armed guardian” or a police officer for every thousand students. This will increase the number of guardians from forty-seven to ninety-three, and the campus security monitors will go up to six hundred and eighty-six.
Additionally, there will be a “floater pool” of twenty-five armed security and fifty unarmed personnel to fill in for absences.
The officials are also increasing surveillance cameras and intercoms. The schools are to have a single-entry point. One of the issues which are still being debated is the use of metal detectors.
Since the massacre in 2018, the students of the school founded “Never Again MSD” – an advocacy group for gun control.
Hopefully, these measures will give the required sense of security for parents and students when the school re-opens in the fall.
