Florida school districts plan to press state lawmakers for an increase in school security money in the upcoming legislative session, following last year’s school shooting in Connecticut.
About $70 million in the current budget goes for school security, mainly for armed school resource officers in middle and high school.
Florida School Boards Association Director Wayne Blanton said that to adequately protect students, more money is needed.
“Some of the districts have put uniformed officers already in elementary schools and that costs a lot of money,” Blanton said. “But the safety of our students is the number one priority of our public schools and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure our schools are even safer than they are now. I will tell you, it’s going to be expensive. It would be in excess of $100 million.”
Security system components such as cameras, locks and scanners could be part of the solution as well.
Blanton said in some older schools teachers can’t even lock classroom doors from the inside.
“Maybe we need a different type of glass. Maybe we need panic buttons in classrooms,” Blanton said. “There are a lot of things that we can do right now that cost very little to help our safety measures out there in our public schools.”
The Senate Education Committee will begin talking about school safety issues on Tuesday.
