The Florida state legislature has passed a law allowing more teachers to carry weapons in school.
After last year’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Wednesday which will allow Florida teachers to carry weapons in school after 144-hour training course.
A former student killed 17 people and wounded 17 others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland last year.
The guardian program will allow teachers to carry a weapon if his or her school district approves. The volunteers will have to take at least 144 hours of police-style training, psychiatric evaluation and drug screening.
Currently, 25 of the state’s 67 school districts take part in the program. However, most Democrats and teachers’ unions opposed the bill.
“Can you imagine somebody you taught potentially coming on the campus and you … protecting other children and shooting a child you once taught? We’re not thinking about all the mental issues that go into that”, Stephanie Baxter-Jenkins of the Hillsborough County Classroom Teachers Association told Fox News.
“We also have kids that come from places where school is the only safe space that they have, so turning that into a different scenario — we don’t think is healthy for kids mentally”, Baxter-Jenkins added.
However, many teachers in Florida are in favor of the bill. Last week, Reuters reported, “in anticipation of passage, school employees in 40 of Florida’s 67 counties already enrolled in or planned to take the 144-hour course.”
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