JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The tragedy in Uvalde, Texas, has parents, teachers and students concerned about safety on campus. That was clear Friday at a public school in Duval County.
While it proved to be nothing of worry, police were called out to Oceanway Middle School around noontime. Some parents gave the newsroom a call, voicing concern.
As it turned out, on the last day of school — another student brought along another young person, who did not go there, temporarily prompting a lockdown.
I visited other schools, like Springfield Middle School, and spoke with parents and guardians, asking whether they felt their children are safe.
“I think for the particular schools that my kids go to, yes,” parent Jay Glover told me.
“I do think they are safe because they have school security on here,” Rosemary Bland told me.
I also spoke with Chief Greg Burton, of the Duval County School Police Department. His message to parents: “Your children are safe in our schools.”
Burton says they have school safety officers and school guardians, who are trained civilians, in every school.
“You just can’t walk into a school,” Barton said. “Every one of our schools has an armed person from bell to bell. We also have armed individuals at most of our sporting events.”
News4JAX has been showing you all week how schools in Florida are required to be locked and protected. We’ve seen that locally with fencing around schools, locked gates and cameras.
“Also, we are required to make sure that every staff has emergency protocols, that when we go into what’s called a lockdown, that we have a way of notifying everybody of the lockdown,” Burton added.
On Thursday, Sheriff Mike Williams and Mayor Lenny Curry told us they are working with the school system to bring in more training, with some outside groups.
The school police chief also said that, as with other school shootings, we will learn a lot from the shooting in Texas. At this time, he was not ready to speak on the response by Texas police.