TITUSVILLE, Fla. -- Brevard County school leaders are considering dropping a plan to allow school staff to voluntarily carry weapons in order to stop a potential school shooter.
- Brevard Public Schools considers hiring armed security person
- Some parents divided over arming school staff
- School board held town hall meeting at 7 p.m., Monday
Instead, the Brevard Public Schools is looking into hiring a dedicated armed security person, in addition to installing a school resource officer in every school in the county.
Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey and school board members originally announced plans to allow school staff to carry guns nearly two weeks after the school shooting in South Florida.
"I fear that having more guns means more opportunity for accidents, and more opportunity for my son to be hurt," said Titusville parent Bridget Michels.
Since that February announcement, the district has set up town hall meetings to get the opinions of parents and community members.
"It needs to be done," said Marlene Brown, a Mims grandmother who supports arming school staff, "(we need) to protect the children, there's a lot of loonies out there."
Parents make voices heard
Monday was the final town hall meeting before the school board is expected to make a decision on Tuesday.
The meeting at Andrew Jackson Middle School in Titusville was the last chance for parents in Brevard County to make their voices heard before the school district moves to vote on arming school staff.
According to a recent school district survey, a slight majority of parents throughout Brevard, and particularly the northern part of the county like Titusville, do support the guardian program proposed by the district. The program would allow certain, voluntarily trained staff to carry guns on campus.
Many parents voiced their support for the program.
"We have guns protecting everything except for our schools," one parent said.
"Le'ts let the state know we know how to keep our students safe!" another parent echoed.
However the same survey showed a majority of students and actual school staff who responded are opposed to the idea.
During the same town hall, the majority of those attending were opposed to the program.
"It's showing more violence in the schools, and you know with half the people being afraid of guns, I don't see how the problem is going to be solved, and I don't see where two wrongs make a right," grandparent of one student Jeanie Huppert said.
Tuesday night the School Board will take up this issue of training and arming some school staff. However, the school board asked staff to look into other options for hiring full-time armed security specialists -- they are still looking into it.
Reporter Jerry Hume contributed to this story.
