Orange County school safety under scrutiny

ORLANDO, Fla. (FOX 35 Orlando) - The Orange County School District says they have a solid safety and security plan, after one of their own board members criticized it at a meeting.

"The entire district has been focused on safety and security," says School Board Chair Teresa Jacobs.

Jacobs is defending the safety plan, after a dispute with longtime board member Kat Gordon. It happened at Tuesday night's meeting.

Gordon told Jacobs, "I know about safety better than you do. You might have been the mayor of this county, but I've been sitting here in this chair when you didn't even know what was going on and your gonna feel it. So you need to listen and learn."

Gordon says Orange County is not prepared when it comes to school safety -- this, after attending national conferences with those affected in Sandy Hook, Parkland and Columbine.

"We need to bring in, those that worked with safe and sound schools.The Sandy Hook Initiative, as well as Broward County and even the Columbine [officials]."

Gordon says she knows from experience.

"I've went through years of teaching and not one time did I hear any of the things they talked at this conference. It's just mind boggling. I'm in a school everyday. We are not ready."

But district leaders argue that they are ready and say Gordon has been working in Osceola County, not Orange County.

Jacobs says, "The fact that we haven't directly talked to survivors doesn't mean we're not engaged in this process."  

Jacobs says staff attends similar conferences that Gordon went too and are always reevaluating steps,

"The superintendent is looking at the flyer that she's got and she's got her staff looking at anything else that we haven't learned through the safety recommendations."

Jacobs understands Gordon's passion to keep everyone safe, but she says there's some conversations that need to happen privately for safety reasons.

"I was a little surprised because that's not generally the way we would approach a subject of that concern."

Jacobs says students and teachers have been doing drills every month and procedures are in place to keep everyone safe.