By Terry Witt – Special to Spotlight

Levy County School Superintendent Jeff Edison said he told representatives of a school safety summit convening in Tallahassee Tuesday that he needs nine more school resource officers to protect the county’s schools.

The summit was organized in the wake of the mass murder of 17 students and adults at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Feb. 14, 2018. Participants at the summit are floating ideas to heighten school security.

Gov. Rick Scott and School Board member Brad Etheridge are among the summit participants.

Edison said he consulted Sheriff Bobby McCallum after being asked by summit officials to provide the number of resources officers he would need to secure Levy County public schools. McCallum wants nine more officers to beef up the six resource officers currently protecting the county’s 12 schools.

“We’re short by about nine. Each school needs a school resource officer,” McCallum told Levy County commissioners Tuesday at their meeting. “We need more, but that’s not the answer totally. It’s a lot of issues; no easy answers.”

The additional school resource officers would cost $750,000, or about $80,000 per officer, according to Edison. Neither the sheriff’s office nor the school district has the funding to add nine additional officers.

“Our budget is like your budget at home,” Edison said. “If you borrow from Peter it has to come from somewhere. We want one resource officer at every school.”

Edison said he hasn’t been told where state would get the money for the additional officers.

McCallum said one school resource officer per school would be the minimum needed for school security.
“You won’t ever be able to staff it to the levels you really truly need,” he said, referring to costs.

The sheriff’s office currently stations one school resource officer to protect the three Chiefland schools, two school resource officers to protect the four Williston schools, one school resource officer for the three Bronson schools, one school resource officer for the Levy Learning Academy, a part-time officer for Yankeetown School and a part-time officer for Cedar Key School.

Sheriff’s office supervisors provide supplemental security coverage for the schools and the Cedar Key Police Department fills in at Cedar Key School.

The school board currently funds 1 ½ to 2 of those school resource officers positions using state safe schools funds. The remainder comes from the sheriff’s office.

McCallum said the sheriff’s office investigated two or three incidents on Thursday and Friday of last week in county schools that “didn’t amount to much of anything.” One incident turned out to be students passing around photo of a student in South Carolina carrying an AR-15 assault rifle.

“We’re going to have to meet with students to lay down the law with pranks,” he said.

McCallum said the incident in Gilchrist County last week was a more direct threat against students. The Gilchrist County School District closed schools for two days. Gilchrist students returned to class Tuesday.

Edison said the school district is posting information on its Facebook page about school security and allowing parents to ask questions, but information about school safety plans cannot be disclosed. He said state and school officials don’t want safety plans disclosed. Individuals who might be planning attacks on schools don’t need to know how schools will protect students from attacks.

The superintendent said safe school funding from the state pays for such things as fencing, security cameras, school crossing guards and school resource officers. The money is spread thin.

He said the state has also cut revenues to the school district in a variety of ways. He said the budget cuts are making it more difficult to pay for the school security.

He said the schools have guidance counselors, but the counselors are not licensed therapists. They were not trained to deal with mental health issues and the state provides no money to work with mentally ill students.

State Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, who is expected to be the next Florida Senate president, was shopping school safety proposals to fellow lawmakers Tuesday that included raising the age to 21 for buying high-capacity assault rifles; giving law enforcement and families more tools to keep weapons away from the mentally ill; and spending millions of dollars more on mental health counseling and school resource officers at schools, according to a Gainesville Sun story in Tuesday’s edition.

Photo by Terry Witt: Sheriff Bobby McCallum discusses school safety issues with the Levy County Commission.

Regular Meeting of BoCC February 20, 2018
Posted February 20, 2018