ORLANDO, Fla. – A bill going to the desk of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would allow more teachers to carry guns in school.
Teachers who want to carry a gun have to go through training and a psychiatric evaluation, according to a report from The Associated Press.
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The AP reports as of now, the only teachers who are allowed to carry guns are ones who have another role (like a coach) at the school and at school districts that approve of teachers having guns on campus.
We reached out to each school district in Central Florida to see the views of school leaders for each county:
Flagler County:
"We have School Resource Deputies, provided by the Flagler Co Sheriff's Office providing security on all our campuses. Superintendent Jim Tager maintains this is the best arrangement for our district at this time," Flagler County Schools said in a statement.
Lake County:
"Our school board has not revisited this issue since discussing it last year and deciding to implement the guardian program in our schools, a move that our superintendent has said gives us the added protection we want for our schools while allowing teachers to focus on teaching, as so many of them told us they wanted to do," Communications Officer of Lake County Schools Sherri Owens said.
Marion County:
"Members of the Marion County School Board do not support arming teachers. They have said so repeatedly in various public meetings over the last year," Director of Public Relations with Marion County Public Schools Kevin Christian said.
Orange County:
"On March 12. the board declared opposition to the arming of teachers in Orange County and therefore opposes the bill that would allow the arming of teachers," Orange County Public Schools Media Relations Director Shari Bobinski said.
Osceola County:
"The Osceola County School Board has chosen to go the route of utilizing SROs in every school in conjunction with our local law enforcement agencies instead of arming teachers. No Board Member has brought up the topic at a public meeting to change this practice. They would have to do that to discuss it publicly and that has not happened," Osceola County Schools Public Information Officer Dana Schafer said.
Seminole County:
"Two years prior to the Parkland incident we had dedicated and armed School Resource Officers/Deputies at all of our schools. Post-Parkland, we’ve since added to have two at every high school. We have no current plans to arm teachers and prefer to use our trained law enforcement professionals to protect our schools, students and staff," Seminole County Schools said in a statement.