Florida to Let Teachers Carry Guns. Will Black Students Pay the Price?
A memorial garden to honor victims at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.CreditSaul Martinez for The New York Times
Image
A memorial garden to honor victims at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.CreditCreditSaul Martinez for The New York Times
By Patricia Mazzei
But that did not mean the debate would not be long and emotional, as Democrats implored Republicans in the majority to consider the possible risks — one of them being teachers with guns who might represent yet another source of risk for black and Latino students.
The tension peaked when Representative Shevrin D. Jones, a Democrat who is African-American, tried unsuccessfully to pass a pair of amendments on the House floor on Tuesday aimed at protecting children from the possibility that an armed teacher in a chaotic situation could assume that a black student was a threat.
One amendment would have required any teacher who volunteers for the so-called school guardian program to be trained in implicit bias, or stereotypes that could unconsciously affect spur-of-the-moment decisions. The other would have prohibited a teacher who shoots a student by mistake in a situation with an active shooter on campus from claiming self-defense under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law.
was approved by the State Senate last week, now heads to the desk of Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, who is expected to sign it.
killed two people at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. And as House lawmakers debated the legislation on Tuesday, news broke in Florida that a school resource officer’s holstered firearm went off at a Pasco County school cafeteria as the officer leaned against a wall. No one was hurt.
Several Republicans pointed to the San Diego shooting, in which a man said he rushed the shooting suspect, as a reason Florida should allow local school districts to partner with sheriff’s offices to train teachers who volunteer to do so to carry guns on campus.
“None of us want to be debating this,” Representative Byron Donalds of Naples, the only African-American in the House Republican caucus, said on Wednesday. “But the one thing that we have to acknowledge — as unfortunate as it is — is that when a psychotic person enters a facility, a school, where kids are at play or at study or at lunch and they pull a weapon, the first responders, the real first responders, are the school staff that love our children.”
Mr. Jones, 35, who suffered a serious nerve injury in 2016, was absent from Wednesday’s vote. His office said he had been rushed to the hospital on Wednesday morning suffering from vertigo, and was prescribed bed rest.
School districts in some of the state’s biggest cities, with large numbers of black and Hispanic students, have declined to participate in the guardian program, which was created last year after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland that left 17 people dead and 17 wounded. The compromise worked out last year allowed certain school staff, but not classroom teachers, to be trained to carry guns.
In December, a state commission investigating the shooting recommended expanding the program to include classroom teachers. Investigators concluded that an armed teacher might have stopped the confessed attacker in Parkland. The provision was written into legislation that incorporated a slew of other commission recommendations relating to school safety and students’ mental health.
Don’t Be Distressed You Are Distressed
Does This Dress Make Me Look Guilty?
‘I Decided to Keep Mum, and He Kept Sneaking Glances My Way’
Representative Kristin Jacobs, a Democrat whose district includes Parkland, called the provision for arming teachers a “poison pill” that would prevent the legislation from garnering the same bipartisan support that lawmakers gave last year’s school safety package.
“We’re going to vote along party lines. We all know the outcome,” she lamented on Wednesday. “And we knew the outcome on my side of the aisle the minute the bill came up. And why did we know? Because we’re not really at the table.”
In Broward County, where Parkland is, Sheriff Gregory Tony said in a letter to school board members and the school district superintendent on Wednesday that he did not intend to expand the local guardian program to include teachers.
The sheriff’s position was notable because he was appointed to the job by Mr. DeSantis in January after the new governor removed former Sheriff Scott Israel, accusing him of incompetence during and after the shooting at Stoneman Douglas.
“Arming teachers is not the right approach to keep our children safe,” Sheriff Tony wrote. “This program would place students, teachers and first responders at risk, when our focus should be on keeping our students safe and making schools places where they feel they belong.”
Florida to Let Teachers Carry Guns. Will Black Students Pay the Price?
A memorial garden to honor victims at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.CreditSaul Martinez for The New York Times
Image
A memorial garden to honor victims at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.CreditCreditSaul Martinez for The New York Times
By Patricia Mazzei
- May 2, 2019
But that did not mean the debate would not be long and emotional, as Democrats implored Republicans in the majority to consider the possible risks — one of them being teachers with guns who might represent yet another source of risk for black and Latino students.
The tension peaked when Representative Shevrin D. Jones, a Democrat who is African-American, tried unsuccessfully to pass a pair of amendments on the House floor on Tuesday aimed at protecting children from the possibility that an armed teacher in a chaotic situation could assume that a black student was a threat.
One amendment would have required any teacher who volunteers for the so-called school guardian program to be trained in implicit bias, or stereotypes that could unconsciously affect spur-of-the-moment decisions. The other would have prohibited a teacher who shoots a student by mistake in a situation with an active shooter on campus from claiming self-defense under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law.
was approved by the State Senate last week, now heads to the desk of Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, who is expected to sign it.
killed two people at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. And as House lawmakers debated the legislation on Tuesday, news broke in Florida that a school resource officer’s holstered firearm went off at a Pasco County school cafeteria as the officer leaned against a wall. No one was hurt.
Several Republicans pointed to the San Diego shooting, in which a man said he rushed the shooting suspect, as a reason Florida should allow local school districts to partner with sheriff’s offices to train teachers who volunteer to do so to carry guns on campus.
“None of us want to be debating this,” Representative Byron Donalds of Naples, the only African-American in the House Republican caucus, said on Wednesday. “But the one thing that we have to acknowledge — as unfortunate as it is — is that when a psychotic person enters a facility, a school, where kids are at play or at study or at lunch and they pull a weapon, the first responders, the real first responders, are the school staff that love our children.”
Mr. Jones, 35, who suffered a serious nerve injury in 2016, was absent from Wednesday’s vote. His office said he had been rushed to the hospital on Wednesday morning suffering from vertigo, and was prescribed bed rest.
School districts in some of the state’s biggest cities, with large numbers of black and Hispanic students, have declined to participate in the guardian program, which was created last year after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland that left 17 people dead and 17 wounded. The compromise worked out last year allowed certain school staff, but not classroom teachers, to be trained to carry guns.
In December, a state commission investigating the shooting recommended expanding the program to include classroom teachers. Investigators concluded that an armed teacher might have stopped the confessed attacker in Parkland. The provision was written into legislation that incorporated a slew of other commission recommendations relating to school safety and students’ mental health.
Don’t Be Distressed You Are Distressed
Does This Dress Make Me Look Guilty?
‘I Decided to Keep Mum, and He Kept Sneaking Glances My Way’
Representative Kristin Jacobs, a Democrat whose district includes Parkland, called the provision for arming teachers a “poison pill” that would prevent the legislation from garnering the same bipartisan support that lawmakers gave last year’s school safety package.
“We’re going to vote along party lines. We all know the outcome,” she lamented on Wednesday. “And we knew the outcome on my side of the aisle the minute the bill came up. And why did we know? Because we’re not really at the table.”
In Broward County, where Parkland is, Sheriff Gregory Tony said in a letter to school board members and the school district superintendent on Wednesday that he did not intend to expand the local guardian program to include teachers.
The sheriff’s position was notable because he was appointed to the job by Mr. DeSantis in January after the new governor removed former Sheriff Scott Israel, accusing him of incompetence during and after the shooting at Stoneman Douglas.
“Arming teachers is not the right approach to keep our children safe,” Sheriff Tony wrote. “This program would place students, teachers and first responders at risk, when our focus should be on keeping our students safe and making schools places where they feel they belong.”
Florida to Let Teachers Carry Guns. Will Black Students Pay the Price?
