NEPTUNE BEACH, Fla. – Neptune Beach Police increased their presence Friday night outside of Fletcher High School’s football game.
The agency said it was because of an off-campus incident and that it was out of an abundance of caution.
The move came about a month after the school implemented new safety measures for football games following a fight that broke out in the 4th quarter of a game in September.
A mother and a grandfather of two different students both said they weren’t concerned with the added police presence because it helped them feel safer.
Stannette Haggard has a daughter in the band and comes to games frequently. She said she appreciates the extra presence of law enforcement.
“It makes me feel a little bit better that they’re trying to be proactive instead of reactive, so I don’t feel like ‘oh my gosh I should stay home or I should keep my kids home’ because it’s a part of life,” Haggard said.
Robert Collins Sr. attended the game for his grandson’s senior night.
“Sure I feel safe,” he said. “We have a presence of law enforcement officers and that makes us double safe and so we’re not anticipating any trouble. Everyone seems to be calm and having a nice time.”
School principal Dean Ledford said the increase in security is always welcome.
“It’s one of those things where you can’t have enough security for these games. The big goal for tonight is that we play football, the fans and students, the band, cheerleaders, dance team, everyone has a great time and they don’t have to worry about these things, so whatever we can increase that would be great,” Ledford said.
While the reasoning for Neptune Beach Police’s presence was kept vague, Ledford said it wasn’t connected to a threat the school received earlier this week.
“For tonight’s game, it’s not really relevant for tonight’s game at all. We were on a Code Yellow for that day and just made sure we took all of our precautions and followed all of our protocols and things like that for that day,” he said.
A month ago safety measures were put in place for the school football games following a fight that broke out at a game in September.
Principal Ledford said those safety measures seem to be helping.