JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Protecting our children while they’re at school -- that’s the priority and that’s why Duval County Public Schools and the city of Jacksonville are entering into a partnership with a company that specializes in offering risk assessments.
Among the issues in the constantly changing narrative in the deadly Uvalde, Texas, school shooting is the issue of a door to the school and whether it was closed or not. We now know it was indeed closed but for some reason, it did not lock as it was designed to automatically.
The gunman accessed that door to get inside the school and ultimately killed 19 students and two teachers.
As a result of what happened in Texas, Duval County schools wasted no time in making security modifications to protect our children. It hired Armoured One. The company claims it invented technology that can slow or prevent a shooter from getting into a classroom. Duval hopes to capitalize on it and other things the company has to offer.
“We are mandated to comply with many, many security and safety policies and so we’ll evaluate those policies with them,” said Gregory Burton, Executive Director of School Police for Duval County Public Schools. “And then if we have any gaps, the biggest thing we’re looking for is to leverage their experience, (experience) that they’ve had in investigating and analyzing all of these shootings that unfortunately have occurred.”
Armoured One’s experience was honed as a result of the deadly Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012.
The company also provides active shooter training and assessments. Its representatives will visit Duval school buildings and make recommendations for its facilities.
“We do a lot of active shooter trainings,” Burton said. “We are in compliance with all of the drills that are mandated by the state. As a matter of fact, our supervisors are in training today. We do training continuously. Our policies are geared really toward that one thing: active shooter events.”
Duval County voters approved a half-cent sales tax last November. Among other things, the money is earmarked for bolstering school security. DCPS has already been active in implementing a number of enhanced security measures. Still, Burton said vigilance on everyone’s part remains a major piece of maintaining security.
“We depend on our students to come to us with information,” Burton said. “That way we can then address the threats.
“In addition, one of our big protocols is all of the entrances of our schools and access is only through electronic means. All of our doors, entrances are to be kept locked and all of our classroom doors are actually mandated to be locked during instructional times,” Burton said.
Burton emphasized once again that it is not trite nor cliché to say, “if you see something, say something,” adding it is a great line of defense against potential threats.