Flagler Schools preparing for vote on arming select staff members

FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. - Flagler County is thinking about getting more guns in schools.  The school board on Tuesday is expected to vote on whether to start a "Guardian Program."

The program isn’t a pass for anyone to bring a gun on campus. Staff members who choose to participate can go through a training program and become a Guardian.

Flagler County already has a deputy in each school, and two in each high school. The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office provides the training and equipment for the Guardian Program, with help from state funding. 

So what is the difference between a guardian and a school resource officer? Deputies go through 800 hours of training while guardians are only required to undergo 144 hours. Deputies also have better equipment, direct contact with other law enforcement officers, and more work with de-escalation tactics.

Flagler County’s sheriff said he’d support the program as long as it’s in addition to having school resource officers, not instead of having them.

"Even with a deputy on campus, we have big campuses. If there’s an active incident on a campus, it’ll still take a few seconds, if not a minute to get to the scene," explained Sheriff Rick Staly. "Even though our response time is fast with deputies on campus, we’ve seen around the country how quickly people can be shot and killed."

Less than a week ago, the Sheriff says someone threw a knife at someone, grabbed another knife, and then ran over to a high school campus. So he said even if the school isn’t the target of violence, things happening nearby can spill over. That’s another reason he says he’d support the Guardian program.

"In my opinion, the more people you have trained, the more people that are willing to take action to prevent a tragedy, the better," said Sheriff Staly.

The vote on whether to move forward with it happens during Tuesday’s school board meeting, which is at 6:00 p.m.