CLERMONT, Fla. – When the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Safety Act required armed officers or guardians in every Florida school starting in 2018, that created an opportunity for the Clermont Police Department: to add officers to all elementary schools since the Lake County Sheriff’s Office was already in middle and high schools.
The police department now has six SROs in four elementary and K-8 schools, protecting 4,300 children.
Lt. Malcolm Draper, who leads the School Resource Officer program for the Clermont Police Department, invited News 6 into the new Aurelia Cole K-8 academy to see how the SROs get results.
All Clermont police school resource officers have received specialized tactical training to respond to an active shooter. And the SROs train regularly at their respective schools with their students.
“They [students] have to evacuate in a particular direction according to where the stimuli is coming from,” Draper said. “That’s one of the reasons why we have this constant interaction with the students. Whether it’s Officer Avila [the SRO] saying hi or whether it’s in the L.E.A.D. [Law Enforcement Against Drugs and Violence] training.”
Clermont’s SROs do active shooter drills quarterly at the elementary and K-8 schools and spend much of their summer refreshing their tactical training.
And the SRO office is intentionally located next to the lunchroom and down the hall from the main entrance.
“We’re not involved with the architectural design but we had a lot of feedback when it comes to safety and security, not only with the office here but the way the traffic flows,” Draper said. “The way that pick-up and dismissal is.”
SRO Jeremiah Avila showed News 6 the office where the surveillance camera feeds can be viewed.
“There are four viewpoints to a single camera just covering one actual area,” Avila said. “But we can manipulate it four different ways so there’s essentially 360° coverage.”
Avila explained every camera provides a 360-degree view even in the past. He can go back to a point in time in the footage and view any angle of the camera - all 360 degrees are recorded.
“There’s multiple benefits - one example, if there’s an instance where something major happened on campus, an assistant principle or the officers could access this camera and get a live feed and get total coverage,” Avila said.
Besides protecting, the SROS are mentoring.
Avila visits classrooms with a L.E.A.D. instructional notebook.
“Even if we feel cranky, should we be mean to each other?” Avila asked the children. “No! What should we be? Nice! So go ahead and circle how you would feel if you were the person being yelled at in that picture.”
Avila said L.E.A.D. provides a connection with the children.
“I’m a parent, so I can relate to that,” Avila said. “It allows the parents to know that the kids are cared for by law enforcement because we are tasked to keep your kids safe day in and day out while we’re here. It allows the parents to feel comforted that their kids are not only being kept safe but the officers are interacting and not only waiting to move on in life and retire.”
Avila said connecting with kids also tips them off to threats that they can act on before they turn into violence.
“To me and my partner, we’re not to be here to be extra teachers, I don’t tell kids to take your hoodie off or wear close-toed shoes,” Avila said. “We are here to keep the kids safe, the staff safe, that is what we are here for. I’m always open that this could be a door of what could this lead to. And if it leads to something, we’re willing to do it.”
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