ORLANDO, Fla. – City Commissioner Bakari Burns, who represents Orlando’s sixth district, said he has a plan to curb school violence in the area.
The answer? A pilot program he proposed be implemented in Carver Middle School, where a recent incident involving shots fired near the campus sparked a conversation about student safety in the area.
The program, which he hopes would expand to other Orlando schools, would be aimed at combating school violence by using what Burns’ calls “student safety coaches”, who would serve as an added buffer between students and school resource officers.
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“This idea that I have for student safety coaches really came out of a request or need to add more resource officers to police the schools,” Burns said.
Burns said the momentum behind the proposal has been building after the Dec. 2 incident, after which two teens were arrested in connection to two gunshots fired off-campus near Carver Middle School.
“The pilot would put four student safety coaches into Carver Middle School,” he said.
The primary focus of the program is meant to be about establishing trusting relationships between trained community members and students to mitigate behavioral issues. Some of the training will involve mental wellness, mental health recognition, de-escalation tactics, crisis intervention, safety, security and crime prevention.
“We need additional individuals who can connect with our children, who can keep a temperature of our students, so we can intervene and provide guidance to our students,” Burns said.
He added the program is still in a preliminary phase and how it will be funded has not been finalized yet. He has, however, consulted with the city’s Police Chief Orlando Rolon about his proposal.
Burns said compensation for each student coach would make the role worthwhile.
“I’m thinking we would pay these student safety coaches about a base of $45,000 salary, which is a good salary plus benefits,” he said.
Burns said he hopes this pilot program can be launched in the first quarter of 2022.