A group of parents and lawyers from two nonprofits are suing Duval County Public Schools to stop the district from arming the new “school safety assistants,” claiming that effort will endanger students rather than make them safer.
Duval Schools created the armed safety assistant program last summer because the district can’t afford to hire enough school police officers to put one at every school, as required by a new state law after a mass school shooting in Parkland, Fla., last February.
Duval has been trying to recruit, train and equip more than 100 school safety assistants, who for $12.50 an hour will patrol most elementary school campuses. Duval also placed school police officers at its middle and high schools.
That’s not enough for three parents and four students who, backed by the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, the Southern Poverty Law Center and two law firms doing pro bono work, sued to halt the program. The lawsuit — filed Thursday morning — does not identify the parents or students.
“All of us are concerned about our schools being safe, welcoming and inclusive learning environments,” said Adam Skaggs, a lawyer at the Giffords Law Center in New York.
“We believe the presence of inadequately trained security personnel carrying concealed weapons in elementary schools is not only unlawful but is dangerous and will subject our clients and tens of thousands of Duval County school children to the possibility of injury ... of being shot and also of trauma that may come from being in a school where an inadequately trained, armed individual may act inappropriately, intentionally or unintentionally.”
Skaggs referred to several recent cases around the country, where armed school personnel left weapons exposed in a school bathroom or accidentally discharged weapons.
In a less dangerous incident, Duval Schools in October forced out three safety assistants after one was arrested for allegedly pawning his district-issued gun and two were accused of failing to report him.
Skaggs said the district is misinterpreting the state’s school safety law.
He said the new state law allows for the creation of school guardians but it doesn’t create an exemption for them to carry weapons onto school campuses. The exemption must be spelled out in the new law, he said.
“Whatever some members of the legislature intended to do, we can only see what legislation was passed and what the governor signed into law,” he said.
School districts can still hire safety assistants for other safety functions, he said, such as coordinating emergency and crisis-prevention efforts, providing mental health support or keeping doors and gates locked. But they can’t legally be armed, he said.
Proponents of the law in the legislature and even some Duval school board members have in recent months disagreed with that position, saying the new state law makes it clear that school guardians must be armed and on each school campus if that campus is not already guarded by a sworn law officer.
Skaggs said the parents he represents fear that minority students and those with disabilities or behavior problems, who already are disproportionately disciplined by schools, could become targets for extra scrutiny by the safety assistants.
“The school safety assistants don’t have the kind of training that people that work in educational environments have, particularly for dealing with students with learning disabilities.,” he said, especially training in how to communicate with and deescalate conflicts with behaviorally challenged students.
District officials typically don’t comment on pending or filed lawsuits, a district spokesman said.
However Duval officials have in the past described the safety assistants program as safe, saying the assistants will receive more training than armed security guards currently receive. The assistants also will spend much of their time securing and patrolling school perimeters rather than interacting with students.
The safety officers won’t have law enforcement powers; they can’t arrest a student or involuntarily commit him or her to a mental health facility, like school police can.
Duval Safety assistants must pass initial and random drug tests and a psychological evaluation. They must at least be 21 years old, have a high school diploma and possess a concealed weapons permit.
They will take 80 hours of firearms training, 16 hours of precision pistol instruction, eight hours of discretionary shooting instruction using simulator exercises, eight hours of instruction in defensive tactics, eight hours of instruction in active shooter or assailant scenarios, 12 hours of instruction in legal issues and 12 hours of diversity training. They also will have annual ongoing training, weapons inspection and firearm qualifications, the district’s website says.
A job posting on the Indeed website describes the job this way: “There shall be no law enforcement authority, except to the extent necessary to prevent or abate an active assailant incident on Duval County Public School premises. Maintains calm, deters crime, and handles preliminary inquiries into violations of school board policies, on school property or at school-sponsored events. Ensures the safety, security, and welfare of all students, faculty, staff, and visitors in the assigned school. Assists the administrative staff with applying policies and procedures for safe and orderly schools at the building level.”
Duval’s board created the safety assistant program over one member’s objections. Ashley Smith Juarez in June said she had heard from about 50 parents who objected to the plan. There also was an online petition with more than 1,000 signatures against arming safety assistants.
Most board members said that if they had the money, they would have preferred hiring a police officer for each school. But that woud have cost Duval about $10 million and the state sent about $2.4 million.