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Law enforcement vehicles sit outside the Jenkins Middle School in February in response to a shooting threat for which several schools were put on lockdown.
With the first day of classes two days away, school and law enforcement officials are confident in the strategies in place to keep students safe during the upcoming year and beyond.
Recent legislation, such as the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act of 2018, began the implementation of the Guardian program in the state and set the tone for many school districts moving forward.
Most recently, state Senate Bill 7030 was passed in May, which expanded the Guardian program to make teachers eligible to be armed. But years before this recent legislation, Putnam County School District and Sheriff’s Office leaders began to make school safety plans.
“(Sheriff Gator DeLoach) and I started talking about this before the Guardian program ever even was introduced,” Superintendent Rick Surrency said. “We actually crafted our own plan and got out in front of it.”
The school district board voted in June 2018 to implement the Guardian program, which requires an armed person – a school official or school resource officer – to be on every campus while school is in session. Due to steps taken beforehand, the district did not have to make many major changes when Senate Bill 7030 passed.
“With the (Marjory Stoneman Act), everything that has kind of been in place with mental health … and a guardian or school safety officer on every campus, we were kind of ahead of the game already,” said Thomas Bolling, associate superintendent of support services. “So when 7030 came, it just kind of reinforced all of that.”
After a successful first year of the Guardian program and a continued focus on school safety, the only real difference in the program is more volunteers have stepped forward, sheriff’s office Col. Joe Wells said.
“As of now, our Guardian program operates exactly the same as the day it began,” he said.
While the Guardian program has been at the forefront of school safety discussion, there are other things in place locally. The school district and sheriff’s office have placed an emphasis on preventive measures, communication and mental health awareness and counseling.
“(The Guardian program) is just one small piece of a holistic effort to provide safety for our schools,” Wells said. “Because we weren’t fighting to catch up on the school safety officers … we have been able to focus on a lot of this preventive stuff.”
Surrency said another large factor of the district’s safety plan is the proximity of sheriff’s office substations to schools in different areas in the county.
Wells said the impact of these substations and the work of school resource officers goes far beyond keeping students safe from outside assailants. It creates another environment for local youth and law enforcement to foster bonds, he said, which benefits everyone involved.
“Almost the real beauty to those offices is it creates unintentional but very beneficial interactions between the deputies and the students,” he said.
While lawmakers have developed new safety laws, school district and law enforcement officials throughout the state have had disagreements on the best way to implement the policies.
But with local school and law enforcement officials in lockstep, Putnam has separated itself from many others in the pack, Wells said.
“We are as prepared or more prepared than any other district in this state, and we are proud of that,” he said.
With another school year right around the corner, local officials are confident about the steps taken to protect students. Surrency said he and DeLoach have made it a priority to ensure this continues for the foreseeable future.
“This is not politics. This is a personal thing with he and I,” Surrency said. “We all have a vested interest to make sure our kids are safe, and we take that very seriously.”