ARMED GUARDIANS TRAIN FOR NEW SCHOOL YEAR
Safety program created after Parkland shooting
On an instructor’s order, the trainees pulled guns from their holsters and took aim — as if unexpectedly confronting a school shooter.
Then each of the 15 fired four times into targets in front of them. You could hear 60 pops in all.
These trainees, known as “guardians,” will be patrolling Broward schools as early as the first day of class, part of a plan to place armed security personnel on every campus. They’ll finish instruction next week.
The state created the Aaron Feis Guardian program as part of safety measures enacted after the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland.
The new requirement calls for armed security personnel at every campus, meaning each school must have at least a police officer or an armed guardian. “Safety has always been a priority for the school district, but now it’s being taken to a new level,” Schools Su-
perintendent Robert Runcie said.
Runcie and Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel discussed progress with the program Monday, while the first class of 16 guardians practiced firing at paper targets at the Markham Park gun range in Sunrise.
In Broward, that means 55 guardians need to be trained to fill in gaps. Runcie said many of the vacancies are in elementary schools.
So far, 57 have qualified to enter. In addition to the 16 currently training, another 30 will go through training in the fall.
Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties won’t rely on guardians in their schools. Instead, they’ll use armed police officers.
Just weeks remain before the new school year begins Aug. 15.
“When the kids show up on the first day of school, there will be either a guardian or a Broward sheriff ’s deputy in each and every school,” Israel said.
In addition, every deputy not on another assignment will plan to be on campuses before the school day starts and after it ends.
They will be there to “meet students, meet parents, patrol, enforce traffic rules and mostly just looking around and making sure we are keeping the schools as safe as possible,” Israel said.
Other school improvements include upgrading security cameras and implementing “single points of entry” for campus visitors, which use door systems and fencing to restrict visitors’ access to one entrance.
The Sheriff’s Office is still trying to recruit more guardians. Israel said he went to the National Guard in Miramar over the weekend and spoke to 40 soldiers to encourage them to sign up.
The district will pay the guardians $25,000 to $33,000 a year. The Sheriff’s Office will provide each with a uniform and 9 mm handgun. The uniform design hasn’t been finalized yet.
Applicants must be at least 21 years old, have worked with adolescents before and have at least two years of military or sworn law enforcement experience in the last decade.
The background these applicants have in law enforcement or the military makes them qualified to be armed in schools, Runcie said. The gun safety training is a “refresher” for them, he said.
These guardians also won’t have any other duties besides securing the school, Runcie said.
“They’re there for a specific purpose,” he said.
Those participating in the guardian program began training on July 24, Stopnick said.
Training by the Broward Sheriff’s Office includes 132 hours of firearm safety training and 12 hours of diversity training, schools spokeswoman Cheryl Stopnick said. The trainees will earn a $500 stipend when they complete the Sheriff ’s Office’s teachings.
Officials declined to make the guardians available for news interviews Monday, saying they had no time to spare during a tight training schedule.