Next Tuesday, the Flagler County School Board will vote on whether to arm some school employees. The board will vote yes, because as is becoming routine with this board, when it is offered a choice between right and wrong, it chooses wrong, mostly because it isn’t interested in evidence.
The majority of this board is comfortable fabricating its way to its pre-ordained conclusions, and the majority of this board wants to arm employees. So some employees will be armed.
You might get the impression that the board has been discussing the issue since last year. There’s probably been close to a dozen workshop discussions. But they’ve all been about process, not evidence: do we have time to apply for this grant, should we have armed security versus armed employees, should we have armed teachers versus non-teachers, should we have one in each school or more, can we pay for it, will the sheriff train this many or that many, and so on.
Not a single board member ever asked: do we have evidence that arming employees makes a difference? that it makes students safer? Had it asked, it would have found zero evidence that it does.
Not a single board member ever asked: do we have evidence that what we’re doing now isn’t working? Had they asked, they’d have been told the obvious: having trained, professional law enforcement in every school is as good as it gets. You could add to the count. But the board is too cheap to go the professional route. So it’s arming a posse, as if Flagler were Dodge City in 1875 rather than one of Florida’s safest counties.
Not a single board member ever asked: do we know what our parents want? Do we know what our students want? Do we know what our employees and faculty want? Do we care? Of course not. (Actually, Cheryl Massaro, the school board chair, did want empoloyees surveyed on that count. The survey was never conducted.) Had they asked, they would have found overwhelming opposition to arming employees, and overwhelming support for sheriff’s deputies. Had they asked, they’d have demolished their foregone conclusion.
The only survey was to gauge how many employees would be willing to participate in the posse, not what they thought about it. Even then, the district had to cook the numbers to make them look bigger than they were: the figures included off-campus employees, who are irrelevant in the equation, and they reflected a participation rate of less than a third of all employees. In fact, only 112 employees (out of 1,600) said they would participate–a rate of 7 percent. And if you took out the 26 off-campus employees, the rate falls to 5 percent. Knock out the inevitable Rambo nut jobs among them who wouldn’t make it through a psych evaluation and a polygraph exam, and you’re probably looking at less than a dozen.
The Rand Corporation–hardly a liberal think tank: it owes its existence to the military–found no facts to support the arming of school employees. No studies, no sound analyses, no evidence. It found none refuting the arming of school employees, either, but it found plenty of evidence proving that the more guns in civilians’ hands, the more accidents, the more violence, the more homicides, the more unintentional uses, the more risks.
The state cynically calls its armed-employee folly a “guardian program.” Unfortunately, most media repeat the euphemism with submissive complicity. The state claims 46 counties are participating in the program. The list is deceptive. Alachua County, for example, is listed on the state Board of Education’s list of participants. In fact, it has no armed employees, only a partnership with the Alachua Sheriff’s Office, like Flagler.
Broward and Duval counties are listed. They have no armed employees. Duval has its own school police department, but like Broward, it hires additional security guards. Our district doesn’t want to do that because, again, it’s too expensive, even though the guards are paid poverty wages, and even though roaming security guards makes a whole lot more sense than overworked employees stuck in one area of campus. Take note: Duval and Broward had impossible times finding qualified security guards. Volusia claims to have armed employees, but it doesn’t say how many.
That’s another unspoken but grave problem with the program. If you want to know who your school resource deputies are, where they are assigned, how much they make, what weapons they carry, what their law enforcement record looks like, what their use of force record is, you can find out. It’s all public, as it should be, and anyway the Sheriff’s Office has nothing to hide.
Not so with armed employees. You won’t know who they are, what they carry, what their background is, or whether they’re even qualified. Not even their colleagues will know. Their names will be kept secret, as will everything else. We will literally have a secret armed posse in our schools. “Trust us.” That’s what the district tells you. Really? Trust this district? These board members? Russian roulette is safer.
When it still had a certifiably sane majority, this district did an excellent job hardening schools, reducing entry points and creating little fortresses protected by deputies inside and outside. The Sheriff’s Real Time Crime Center has live eyes on every corridor and hallway in every school. Sheriff’s deputies patrolling streets are likelier to get to a school incident faster than any single employee on foot from halfway across campus, and will know where to go better than any employee.
Yet the board is now about to introduce incalculable risks based on the good-guy-with-a-gun myth peddled by the mendacity of the NRA and its propagandists on TV, on zero evidence and at the expense of children’s safety. It is as if the morons of Fox and Friends are making policy for Flagler schools.
That’s why this board on Tuesday will do what it routinely does best: make the wrong choice, no (intelligent) questions asked.
Pierre Tristam is FlaglerLive’s editor. A version of this piece aired on WNZF.
Casey Cole says
Thank you God, took long enough. Going forward, ‘Hardening’ schools is the answer, whether yall like or not.
Justbob says
Up against high powered semi-automatic rifles…good luck with that.
Dennis C Rathsam says
Its ignorant to bring Fox news into your rant. Really???? Keep on drinking the Biden poison…. We all see your agenda, you cant keep blaming the GOP for all the failures of the democratic party. Guns in schools, what a bunch of fools, this remides me of the gang that couldnt shootstright. Another reason to go to a private school. Save your kids from ignorance, you have better choices.
The dude says
A board elected and cheered on by a majority of people too old to have kids in the system decides we need more guns in the schools.
Good luck! I wish you the best.
Not my circus, not my monkeys.
MJH says
Pierre, you are fighting by using logic in the mistaken belief that that those involved are logical; not politically motivated; and have no agenda.
Shenanigans duping voters to believe well educated and informed people are running for office. Oh, I so regret my vote for one of the winning newcomers. Another winner I was aghast was running let alone capable of winning.
Next we’ll have people wanting the parents armed with firearms just in case there is anything troubling them on campus. What could go wrong??
Denali says
And, full body armor. Yep. Send another untrained, unqualified teacher into harms way. Just another statistic waiting to be counted. With the exception of one football coach we had in high school, I cannot imagine any of my former teachers packing a Glock; and several were WWII and Korea vets. 2600 students, no idea how many teachers.
BD says
That’s a wild guess on your part with no data to back it up. Let’s intentionally bring weapons into a school full of children, adolescents and pre-adolescents. What could possibly go wrong? Luckily, my family has decided to leave this crazy swamp to put our kids in school in a reasonable system in a state that still retains some semblance of sanity. I know you all won’t miss us and I can assure you we won’t miss Florida even more.
Sherry says
@BD. . . Good On You!!!
We escaped fascist/crazy town Florida last Summer and moved to wonderful Sausalito, CA. Here we have open minded, educated, kind, friendly, peaceful, quiet neighbors in a gorgeous place with great weather and world class amenities/art/food/wine. Although we were both born and raised in Florida, we do not regret leaving for an instant. Life is GREAT!
Best of luck in finding the joy, peace and love!
Another Concerned Taxpayer !!! says
So, when that strategy fails, what is the plan-b? Is it to implement the old Archie Bunker plan to eliminate hijacking? Simply pass out AK-47’s to each student as they arrive in the morning, then collect them at the end of the day? Is having more employees with guns on campus supposed to deter an active shooter? Many schools already have a police presence at the schools and that does not seem to have any effect. Most past incidents show that the active shooter expects to die during or at the end of their attacks. Is the proposed strategy to just minimize the number of children killed and accept the losses as collateral damage? Until people identify the root causes and seriously address those problems, the problem will not go away. Angry violent adults do not make good role models and our country has way too many of those. And then we are surprised when children follow with their violence. It is amazing how so many people can quickly get on the band wagons for book banning and joining culture wars, but not so much for addressing violence in our schools. So, the answer to the school shootings and all other gun problems, is more guns?
Old Guy says
Pure Folly. If there is a need for more armed security in the schools , pay for more sheriffs deputies.
Pierre is spot on.
Edith Campins says
No, arming a bunch of teachers, with no training and no experiece handling weapons is not the answer. Do you realy think a teacher is going to have the reaction time, the presence of mind, to pull out a gun and shoot someone in a classroom? Since keeping a gun unloaded and/or under lock and key will defeat the purpose, do you really think keeping a loaded gun in a room full of children is a good idea? Because if you do you are an irresposible fool.
GA says
Guns in schools was NEVER a democratic policy. Wow. Delusional much ? ?
P. says
I am a parent and really really concerned right now. How can parents who are against this could still make a point? Do we need to show up Tuesday for the meeting? This is insane! I am not comfortable with my child being in the school with adults with guns. Adults who has no professional training in using guns in a highly stressful situations. No way!! Guns and education are not supposed to be in one bag! Put up metal detectors, check bags, put more security guards by some of the back doors at schools but people who has no education in carrying guns for protection purposes should not be blending in the school staff. How will the kids feel like when they will know there are people with guns at school… This is not a question for few people to decide! It has to be on a ballot for the whole community to decide, or even better, the parents, teachers and everyone who is tied to the schools here.
FlaglerLive says
Classroom teachers would not be armed, only non-classroom employees, and they’d be required to have at least 132 hours of training provided by the sheriff’s office.
COMMON SENSE says
WHAT COULD GO WRONG?
Deborah Coffey says
The Republican School Board is in bed with the Republican governor…ALL of them doing their very best to completely DESTROY public education in America…not to mention, get lots more people killed.
Deborah Coffey says
P.S. There will be a new song coming out soon…”Where have all the teachers gone? Oh, when will you ever learn?”
Protonbeam says
You weren’t screaming for data when you took multiple Covid shots. It’s not your decision that drives conservatives crazy, it’s the absolute inconsistency of your logic that does
Bill C says
“Its ignorant to bring Fox news into your rant. Really????” This from the person who does nothing but spout Fox News talking points, no matter how unrelated they are to the subject at hand. “…this remides me of the gang that couldnt shootstright.” Sounds more like the gang that couldn’t think straight.
What Else Is New says
Thanks to Pierre for voicing sanity using his brilliant style of journalism. Regretfully, some with the sanity of a gnat sit on the school board with evil in their hearts. Arming anyone at school is a psychotic idea. Will the armed non-instructor individual be at once in each corner of the school, be able to face an assault rifle behind which stands a killer of children and teachers, and kill the killer? Of course not. We must stop this gun obsessed madness.
The dude says
Same.
In transition right now.
Damn shame really, it’s so lovely down here.
There’s just nothing here to attract and support middle class families who still work and have children. And the schools, by design, are simply horrible.
I’d love to stay and fight the good fight, but it’s gonna get worse before it gets better, and I’m not gambling my last child’s middle school years away on the hope the folks in this county and city will suddenly decide to actually put the kids needs before their need to engage in hateful politics.
Pierre Tristam says
What Else, yes, the single armed employee never to be identified will, like Homer’s No Name himself, be everywhere thanks to hoverboard, magic carpet and beam-me-up-Scotty technology and skills that apparently our professional law enforcement SRDs do not possess (it’s all secret of course). All you have to do is believe in angels. It’s in the name. Or No Name. Whatever.
Jim says
Good thing that paraeducator that was attacked at matanzas wasn’t armed.
Eric says
Pay for deputies that will actually run in and take the shooter out. More Nashville type officers and less Uvalde cowards that are only good at setting up perimeters and looking helpless as innocent children are slaughtered by some psycho.
Boogeyman says
One word stands out above all….LIABILITY! God forbid if one of these security-type people that are sanctioned to carry a weapon shoots a student. The school board will throw the security person under the bus so fast it will make your head spin. You could not pay me enough to take on the responsibility of being authorized to carry a weapon on school property, either as a security guard or teacher.
Sherry says
@proton. . . instead of ranting BS. . . how about getting educated. . . many, many studies have shown that millions of lives were saved by the Covid vaccines! In addition, statistical analysis has shown that many more lives could have been saved “IF” more people had taken the vaccines.
Here is just one (of many) link that that factual analysis:
https://globalepidemics.org/vaccinations/
GUNS- On the other hand. . . From Harvard Research: Our review of the academic literature found that a broad array of evidence indicates that gun availability is a risk factor for homicide, both in the United States and across high-income countries. Case-control studies, ecological time-series and cross-sectional studies indicate that in homes, cities, states and regions in the U.S., where there are more guns, both men and women are at a higher risk for homicide, particularly firearm homicide.
Jane Elizabeth says
What an idiotic and insane idea! Not to mention frightening as all hell!
Foresee says
Furry and Chong think the schools should stick to teaching the fundamental ABC’s: AR15, Bullets and Crossfire.
Sherry says
@ The Dude. . . Through our experience in living in several places in the USA and abroad, I can assure you there are much better places to live and raise your children. Be guided to your next home by your love for your children and future generations. Joy, Peace and Love to you and yours!
Sherry says
You are so “right on” Bill C!
Ole dennis is completely “non-thinking” now. Hopefully one of these days he will somehow extricate himself from the FOX Brain Bleached Cult.
The 'Bored' of Education in Flagler says
I pulled up FL… I saw the photo and though “Oh god what now…” … well.. my expectations did not disappoint. Moms For Liberty is now labeled as a domestic extremest group… FYI .. Let me say that again DOMESTIC EXTREMEST GROUP. Ha!
Samuel L. Bronkowitz says
Can’t wait until a teacher shoots a kindergartener because she feared for her life and then pleads qualified immunity at trial
protonbeam says
Again, please show me where that one hypothetical analysis was peer reviewed? What Journal published the study?
This pseudo-science, although very well intentioned, is just as compelling as the junk studies promoting guns in schools (of which I could cite several).
Back to my original point – thing are becoming irrational and politicized and not based off clear evidence – 0nly emotion.
protonbeam says
In fact to go along with my other comment about this study not being peer reviewed or credible (it was funded by Facebook) – it bears the bold and highlighted statement in RED
“Caution: Preprints are preliminary reports of work that have not been certified by peer review. They should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.”
Jonathan says
That won’t stop someone with a AR15. Very bad decision if they vote this in. Who gets sued when a child or a teacher gets shot because of this?
James says
DeathSantis is running them all out of state. Remember he cannot get elected to anymore political offices.
Lance Alred says
If you look at the districts where the Guardian Program has been implemented, they did so because they didn’t have enough deputies and law enforcement to effectively place them in schools.
In Flagler County we have coordinated with our sheriffs department to make this happen. So do we really need to place and fund additional armed employees in our schools? I’m almost certain that our Sheriff has an effective plan in place and the response times have been impressive in the past.
What will the ongoing training comprise? Will it be coordinated with law enforcement, how often, who pays?
Will these additional armed employees have police powers?
In terms of liability, all it takes is for a weapon to be drawn incorrectly or improperly placed one time. Lord help us, if one of these people are harmed during an actual response because law enforcement didn’t know who they were or where they were during an interaction.
Instead of rubber stamping a program, we’d be far better asking questions and getting more information about whether a program is really the right fit for our district.
ericji says
There is evidence that hardening targets like schools works. You see the evidence in statements of shooters about what places they avoided. You see it in the overabundance of ‘no gun zone’ shootings and much fewer shootings, or shootings of shorter duration, in places that are not gun free zones.
David Schaefer says
What in the Hell is wrong with these people. Where they all born on Mars. ????????
Sherry says
OK proton. . . show us where “ANYTHING” in your BS Rants is “peer reviewed”. It works both ways!
Ed says
No judgement on arming school personnel.
Police academy training varies from state to state and even city to city, but on average a 20-21 year old recruit receives 7-8 days of self defense and weapons training. With that said about 4 days is actual firearms training ( plus range time where they fire maybe 1000 rounds) and retraining 2-3 times per year throughout their employment.
Most law enforcement officers never fire their weapon at a suspect in their career.
Anyone who is really proficient with any firearm has probably fired 5000-10,000 or more rounds which is multiple times that an average law enforcement fires in their career unless they spend their personal time at a range.
Many citizens may in fact be much better trained and accurate than you might think. They are not Rambos or nut cases.
One of my granddaughters just graduated the Chesterfield Police academy (9 months of training)this past weekend and she still need some serious weapons training even though she hits the streets on June 21(with a training partner)
Unfortunately these are the facts and as a worried grandparent, I was not enthused to hear that diversity training exceeded weapons training. Not that both aren’t important but I would rather have a Cop who can hit a target when her life depends on it.
Sherry says
@proton. . . since you will not accept any information that has not been peer reviewed. . . your life experience must be extremely tiny. Hopefully that means that we will not be subject to the complete BS you post on Flaglerlive. . . since what you write is certainly NOT peer reviewed, right?
In any case, any further discourse with you would be a complete waste of my valuable time.
Pogo says
@Goddamn crazy, dishonest, shitheads who love goddamn guns
1. You’re supposed to clean your “tools” with the Hoppe’s — not drink the stuff.
https://www.hoppes.com/
2. Evidence is not nonsense you pulled out of your ass.
3. Evidence is: the available body of facts or information indicating whether a belief or proposition is true or valid.
“the study finds little evidence of overt discrimination”
https://www.google.com/search?q=evidence
Related reading
https://www.google.com/search?q=guns+in+schools+data
DontsayRon says
Republican nazis cant go low enough. They dont need your vote or opinion they will do whats best for them. Youll learn soon that one of racist rons big donors runs a program for this and they want a return on investment. The corruption in America is probably comparable to Russia(see Oligarchy). Remember how they just made carrying a gun easier without your votes, or the books they banned without your votes, or the gerrymandered map they made without your votes so they dont need your votes. Lets put more guns in racist rons kids schools as a test and see how it goes. Anyone with a gun can go protect rons kids just fill out this form. I have a hard time believing that its even possible to fix this s*** show. If your still pro rebulican I support discriminating against you( and only you). Lets make some extra rules for the old, religious, and wealthy whites. Lets control their access to healthcare or if they can use public restrooms, ban their flags and hate speeches, make them drive to tallahassee to vote since they support discrimination. I mean maybe if we did they would stop their pro hate agenda. And yes there is a term for the ideologies and policies the GOP want to enact its call FASCISM. Just saying…..
Laurel says
Johnathan: Flagler County tax payers.
Purveyor of Truth says
Mr. Tristam, Why is it necessary to refer to people as Rambo nut jobs and how would you define that characteristic? They are school employees, presumably vetted by the district. That is if they are caught up with the background checks. But in any event, I think you diminish your articles when you stoop to Mullins’ style speak. I have the belief, that with your education, you can be better than that.
Samuel L. Bronkowitz says
Interesting that the choice is to arm the administrators, a group of people that historically see children as dollar signs and not human beings. Surely this group of people won’t act just like police and let the shooter run out of bullets before entering the building.
Pierre Tristam says
By definition, civilians eager to carry weapons in our schools–the very few, very worrisome civilians–carry a gene that bears very close examination, as some school districts going this route are finding out, assuming they carry out psych evaluations, polygraphs and the rest of it. Not all districts do, unfortunately, and knowing ours, they’ll be sure not to build in those safeguards, since they have so few people willing to do this to start with. But the real Rambo nut jobs would have to be the school board members who’d vote for something like this. To be polite or go Victorian-speakeasy in the face of this insanity would further normalize what, thanks to NRA theology deifying guns over human beings, has already been so normalized that it has us discussing this as if we were talking about routine items like teacher contracts or roof repairs. Makes me think we’re the ones who need psych-evaluated.
Alexander says
I believe Christy Chong’s husband owes a gun store in Bunnell, so I bet she is all for this so her husband can sell more guns.
The dude says
Folks don’t need to be larping as LEO’s at the schools.
If they feel the need to strap on that smoke wagon and swagger around cosplaying as an LEO, then they need to apply to FCSO and go through all the requisite BG checks (assuming there are any) and spend more than a few weekends getting trained up.
I for one wouldn’t want anyone I’ve met at these schools to be armed around my child.
Deborah Coffey says
You don’t know how to Google?
FlaglerLive says
The gun store is owned by Christy Chong’s father. Her husband manages the store.
Edith Campins says
So, the kitchen staff, the janitors, the maintenance people would be the ones carrying the guns. Got it. Now I can rest easy.
Tired of it says
Please cite some actual facts to support your statements. Shootings of “shorter duration”? How many shooters said they avoided schoos with guns? Please name them. Let’s have some actual facts not the FAUX bs.
Realist says
As a Viet Nam vet I say security is good. Hire professionals with experience in with firearms. Most teachers would freeze. It is not easy to pull the trigger.
Stacy says
You’re not wrong to get your kids out of here. Mine are grown and out of the school system already or I’d have been packing, too. Right wingers are out of control.