Florida School Districts Won't Arm Teachers Under New Law

Florida school districts don’t intend to adhere to a new law allowing teachers to carry guns in classrooms.

The law was signed in by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday as an expansion of the “armed guardian” program Florida established after 2018’s Parkland school shooting. The program was intended to train public school teachers that volunteer should their school come under threat from a shooter.

However, the new law had faced criticism from teachers and law enforcement alike.

“I’m OK with a highly trained cop, a school resource officer, it’s a good thing, we need that. My fear is we’re going to have under-trained teachers making life or death decisions that aren’t going to turn out good,” Kyle Savage previously told The Guardian. Savage, who is a fifth-grade teacher at Cape View elementary, also served as a military police officer during his time in the armed services.

The Guardian also checked out 25 of the largest school districts in Florida and found that none were planning to allow teachers to be armed in the classroom.

“The school board voted on a resolution against arming teachers more than a year ago,” Broward School District Superintendent Robert Runcie said in a statement to parents. And Broward’s stance is backed by local law enforcement.

“Having untrained personnel carrying firearms is more likely to create a tragic scenario where innocent people can get injured or killed,” Broward County Sheriff Tony Gregory wrote in a letter to Florida legislators. The greater irony is that Gregory was appointed by Gov. DeSantis.

However, proponents of the new law insist that it’s meant to help keep schools safe and offer an alternative to the requirements of the MSD Public Safety Act. The Safety Act requires that a school must have at least one armed “safe-school officer” volunteer on campus.

And while the volunteers would undergo strict evaluations and be properly trained, the number of volunteers was well below expectations. On top of that, many school districts chose not to opt into the program and instead took funds to bring in more trained law enforcement officers and improve treatment of student mental health.