[Emily L. Mahoney | Miami Herald] After about seven hours of angry, sometimes deeply painful debate about race and gun violence that spanned two days, the Florida House passed a bill that would allow classroom teachers to be armed in an expansion of the program it created last year after the Parkland shooting.
The debate at times reached a heightened pitch that had Democrats shouting or tearing up as black members delved into details about their personal experiences with racism and their deep-seated fears about minority children being targeted by teachers who have guns.
The bill is now on its way to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk. For teachers and other staff to be armed, school districts must opt-in to the so-called “Guardian program,” which allows teachers and other staff to volunteer to carry a gun on campus after undergoing screening and training by a local sheriff’s office.
That amendment failed, even though some Republicans were convinced to vote for it.
“There’s a reality that some of us have, that some of you in the front row couldn’t care less about,” Jones said, referring to House Republican leadership before he began to shout into his microphone. “I asked for implicit bias training because we’re talking about black boys and girls that are getting murdered by police officers! … There are bad police officers and there are bad teachers.”
But Republicans pointed to the fact that the commission created to investigate the failings of the Parkland shooting issued a report that recommended the Legislature allow classroom teachers to be armed. Last year after Parkland, lawmakers created the “Guardian” program that allows staff to carry guns, but excluded teachers who “exclusively perform classroom duties” as a compromise. This bill would undo that exception.
Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Naples, pointed out the fact that the law enforcement officer assigned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland did not engage the shooter.
“The hard truth is we never know how anybody is going to respond … what we do know is [Parkland] Coach Aaron Feis responded the only way he could and he put his body in the way of students,” he said. “The real first responders are the school staff that love our children. They are the real first responders because they are there at the time the tragedy happens.”
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[Editor’s Note: This article was written by Emily L. Mahoney and originally published at the Miami Herald. Title changed by P&P.]
