Florida Lawmakers Pass Bill To Arm University Professors

The Florida House gave final approval Thursday, the second-to-last-day of the scheduled regular legislative session, to a package formulated in the aftermath of the shootings at Florida State University last year that would arm professors.

The House approval followed the Senate’s Wednesday.

HB 757, sponsored by Rep. Michelle Salzman, a Republican from Escambia County, first passed the House two weeks ago, but differences in a provision related to private K-12 school security tied it up.

Tuesday, Senate sponsor Sen. Don Gaetz, a Republican from Crestview, told the Phoenix that the two chambers would pass the bill but that more conversations were needed with the House, postponing the Senate’s scheduled vote by one day.

The private school provision would’ve added to the section of statute providing security for Jewish day schools. The House wanted to include Roman Catholic schools in that section. The Senate wanted to create a new section of statute providing security for schools from all religions that receive a credible threat.

The compromise? Forget adding anything and keep the bill focused on higher education.

“We don’t want to get hung up because the Board of Governors, the State University System, the state colleges asked for this bill. They believe that it’s critical,” Gaetz said Wednesday, following Senate passage.

“All you have to do is turn on the news today and see that violence is no respecter of sectarian lines or of educational lines or of institutional lines, and I believe that our state universities and our state colleges are properly concerned with making sure that their campuses are hardened — that they have a plan for dealing proactively with threats and dealing with threats when, God forbid, they might arise.”

Thursday, a gunman opened fire in Norfolk, Virginia, at Old Dominion University. One person and the shooter died and two others were wounded.

A synagogue in Michigan was targeted Thursday, too, by a man with a rifle who rammed his vehicle into the building, AP News reported.

Salzman posted to social media following the vote.

 

Education Commissioner and Board of Governors member Anastasios Kamoutsas posted to social media his praise for the bill’s passage. “Having guardians in schools is one of the most effective ways to ensure highly trained personnel are in place to respond to an active assailant.”

The bill

The more contentious part of the bill would allow professors and other people appointed by a university president to carry weapons on campus.

Democrats opposed the bill.

The measure would extend Florida’s School Guardian Program to public colleges and universities, expanding the program lawmakers created for K-12 schools following the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas Shooting in Parkland, in which 17 people were killed.

The Guardian program allows employees and faculty members who undergo training to carry guns on campus. The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission concluded the “best way” to combat campus violence is “to ensure highly trained personnel are in place to respond immediately in the event of a school shooting.”

The bill requires universities to conduct threat assessments and create threat-management teams. It directs training for faculty to identify and respond to behavioral mental health warning signs and to enhance communication about dual-enrolled students’ discipline records between K-12 schools and colleges.

–Jay Waagmeester, Florida Phoenix