Palm Beach County schools step up security

Parkland shootings prompted new scrutiny of conditions

Palm Beach County schools have sped up several long-planned safety precautions since the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shootings forced new scrutiny of school security.

School board member Erica Whitfield said staff and contractors discovered a long list of security problems during post-Parkland inspections, including a lack of safe spaces for students in portables and doors without working locks.

“The Parkland tragedy pushed a new focus on doing this as fast as possible,” she said.

Parent Karyn Hoffman of Boca Raton said Thursday that the changes must continue to come rapidly to assuage fearful families. A family therapist who has two daughters in Palm Beach County schools, she said a sense of

anxiety is pervasive among students, parents and teachers.

“Kids are not feeling safe,” Hoffman said. “Any steps are better than no steps, but people are concerned that things aren’t happening fast enough.”

The Feb. 14 massacre prompted a series of school board meetings where parents throughout the county pleaded for the school district to hasten security improvements.

They said there were too many ways for strangers to enter the district’s sprawling campuses, where students are often easily visible from the road as they change classes or spend time on the playground.

The state Legislature has provided $5.5 million for 75 police officers to be added to Palm Beach County’s 150-officer school force. The county’s charter schools will get a separate $500,000 for their own police security. The district also will get $4.3 million for students’ mental health care. Charter schools will get about 10 percent of that pot.

In addition, Superintendent Donald Fennoy, in a letter to Palm Beach County families posted on Facebook, said these changes and improvements have been implemented or are planned for the coming months:

Fire and Code Red drills will be announced in advance for the remainder of the school year to avoid creating panic among students.

All schools that have more than one point of entry were authorized to hire a temporary security monitor for parking lots and other school entries.

New doors and new locks have been installed in classrooms that lacked security doors. Schools where students would have had to find safety through a hallway in an emergency now have safe rooms in locked classrooms.

Over the summer, the district plans to install security fences, change front office entries and improve security cameras.

A team of administrators is researching the efficacy of having all students in the district wear ID badges.

The district plans a national search for a new school district police chief to accommodate the expanded staff and create a more prominent role for the leader.

Fennoy said there will be additional changes that he can’t make public.

“Students can’t focus on learning if they don’t feel safe,” he wrote. “While we may not be able to share every aspect of our security plans with you, I am committed to keeping you informed to the fullest extent possible”.

Fennoy