Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Bittersweet day as Broward schools open
Campuses filled with security measures, memories
A new era opened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Wednesday, the first day back at school after summer break.
For many students, the tragedy that struck the school on Feb. 14, when a shooter killed 17 students and teachers, loomed heavily as they entered their campus. Police officers directed traffic and ensured no strangers came close to the school while helicopters loomed overhead.
After a summer of hiring school police officers and adding new fences, gates, alarms and security cameras, Broward schools still face an abundance of security issues as the school year begins. Students noticed a heavy police presence on many campuses.
There are 18 personnel on the Stoneman Douglas campus each day: Three school police officers provided by the city and the Broward Sheriff ’s Office, and 15 campus monitors and security specialists provided by the school district.
Similar security measures are being implemented at schools throughout the district. On the first day of school, students and parents noticed school access points changed at 135 of Broward’s 230 schools, with only one way to get in, usually through the main office.
For the first time at Stoneman Douglas, security staff checked student IDs and examined the insides of student backpacks,
Superintendent Robert Runcie said. But he said the screenings did not cause significant backups as students arrived Wednesday morning.
Runcie called Wednesday “a bittersweet day,” with students happy to be back at school but still anxious about the horrible afternoon in February.
Mason Wank, 14, a freshman, said he is excited to start high school in spite of all the security talk. He said the school’s freshman orientation lacked any discussion of policing issues.
“They tried to make us not think about it,” he said. “It was pretty easy to get on my middle school campus. They weren’t really checking anyone. I trust they are going to amp security up now.”
Freshman Sean McHenry, 14, said he also was not concerned about security, although the heavy police presence could not let him forget about it.
“There are fences everywhere and cops swarming,” McHenry said. “The school looks like a prison. But it actually makes me feel better to know I don’t have to worry about it.”
Runcie said that was the goal, although there have been an assortment of stumbling blocks and obstacles since the February massacre. The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, passed by the state Legislature after the shootings, requires every Florida school to have at least one police officer or armed guard, but finding those officers has proven a challenge.
Runcie assured the public that every school would be covered. But on Tuesday, his staff asked the city of Fort Lauderdale to give the district 13 officers or guards for schools in the city because the district had not been able to find enough officers in time for the first day of classes.
Runcie’s staff also appealed to Hollywood and Lauderhill to do the same. The district will foot the bill for officers’ overtime. Runcie did not know, off hand, how many officers each agency provided, he said at an afternoon news conference.
The Broward Sheriff ’s Office volunteered, Runcie said, to help assure that all of the schools in the cities and towns it serves would be covered. Coral Springs, Pembroke Pines and Plantation “stepped up” as well, he said.
The district has also had trouble filling the ranks of its armed guardians, a new position created by the Legislature to help keep schools secure. The majority of applicants for the jobs didn’t meet the requirements.
The district has eight guardians in place, and a new cohort of 30 is in training, according to the district.
At an afternoon news conference, Runcie gave these first-day-of-school statistics:
The school district has 114 teacher vacancies, compared with 138 at this time last year.
There are 3,354 students at Douglas, 25 fewer than there were at the start of school last year. The freshman class, with 848 students, is the largest in the school.
There are no teachers vacancies at Douglas. The school has 154 teachers, including nine who transferred from other schools and 8 new hires.
The school district announced earlier this month that it had temporarily abandoned its metal-detector plan for Douglas, which had been set to be ready for the school’s first day. Runcie said there were too many obstacles, including staffing and potential long lines.
The reversal marked one of many planned Douglas security enhancements that the district has scrapped, including having students use clear backpacks and hiring a retired Secret Service agent to review the actions of administrators and then suspending that investigation. Runcie said the investigation would have duplicated the work being done by a state commission that’s also examining the massacre.
Also new this year: A buzzer to enter the main office, extra security cameras, new fences and gates, and classroom doors that lock automatically but allow teachers and students to exit without restriction.