BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – Brevard Public Schools is hoping school workers will sign up to become campus guardians.
The school board voted on Tuesday in favor of expanding the Sheriff Training On Site Marshall Program to allow district personnel who meet the qualifications.
Employees who are not assigned to a classroom can volunteer to undergo training.
Sheriff Wayne Ivey talked to News 6′s James Sparvero about preparing district workers for their new responsibilities.
“They’ll be Brevard Public Schools employees, but they’ll be trained by us, and then they’ll have continual training by us, as well,” the sheriff said.
The district says employees who are accepted will undergo vetting before taking part in the STOMP program. The district also says any employee who completes the training will only be able to prevent or stop an active assailant situation on Brevard Schools property. Outside of that, they will have no other law enforcement authority.
One school board member argued being armed in schools is a job for law enforcement, not for other staff members.
“I believe this is the primary role of security specialists and officers,” Jennifer Jenkins said. “And the response is, we can’t find enough staff to fill it. Well, pay them more. Advocate to your state legislators and your governor so that we can have the right people in place.”
Sheriff Ivey responded to Jenkins’ comments.
“The best defense we have in protecting our schools is to have as many people on the campus that can participate in that protection,” Ivey said. “I’d love to have two school resource deputies or more on every campus, but that’s not practical. The amount of recruitment and retention that goes in to putting those people on the campuses, the salaries, the benefits, all of that. What we’re doing is we’re taking people that are already on those campuses, training them to partner with us to protect those students, to protect those teachers.”
The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office formed the STOMP program in the wake of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. The program oversees all school resource officers and security specialists on BPS property.
Training is targeted to begin sometime in July as soon as volunteers are vetted, the sheriff said.Ivey said about 100 school district employees have applied already.
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