QUESTIONS ABOUT SCHOOL SECURITY
Former student Molly Jones asks about ensuring student safety; district and partners talk about what they’ve done
Molly Jones brings up her concerns about school safety.
Undersheriff Billy Jones and district School Safety Director Jim Griner discuss steps taken to protect schools.
School Resource Officers and Guardians line the wall.
By WILLIAM SNOWDEN Editor
Last Monday night’s school board meeting was packed beyond standing-room only – people lined the long hallway outside the meeting room.
Most were there to support former Wakulla High student Molly Jones, now a senior at Florida State, as she spoke to the school board members about school safety.
“Our schools are under attack in America,” Jones said.
Jones basically made three points: that the school board should declare the safety of students, teachers and staff as the No. 1 priority; to address weaknesses in school security, especially dealing with access; and have an independent third party specializing in school safety to review and make recommendations about current and planned facilities.
Isabella Taff, a junior at Wakulla High School, said her youth pastor had asked a group of about 200 students if they felt safe at school. No one said yes, she said.
District personnel were aware that Jones planned to speak on school security – she had a Facebook post about it urging people to attend the school board meeting in support. In response, the district’s School Safety & Risk Management Director Jim Griner spoke on what has been done locally for security: cameras, fencing, swipecard technology, new radios, threat assessments.
Griner noted that, after the Parkland shooting in 2018, Sheriff Jared Miller and Superintendent of Schools Bobby Pearce met and agreed to have a School Resource Officer at every school; later, they added Guardians, the red-shirted personnel armed with rifles who patrol campuses. “All they do is look for a bad guy,” Griner said.
Griner introduced all the SROs and Guardians who work the campuses.
Undersheriff Billy Jones reiterated that Sheriff Miller and Superintendent Pearce remained committed to school safety.
To the students in the audience, Jones said: “To hear you feel unsafe, I’ll lose sleep over that tonight.” He noted his children are students in Wakulla and his wife is a teacher.
Jones said the sheriff’s office is “passionate about protecting our (school) faculty and citizens.”
Amy Bryan, the district’s director of mental health services, introduced four of the district’s five social workers and talked about the focus on being pro-active. She said staff “look for any kid struggling in any area.”
Jonathan Flagg, who teaches aviation at Wakulla High School, and focuses on teaching students to fly drones, said that students are using the drones for aerial surveillance of the campus – checking the gates, rooftops, any suspicious characters on campus.
And since the school board had voted earlier to award the contract for designing the new front of Wakulla High School to Clemons Rutherford Architects, the architect for the project, Greg Kelly, added his voice to it, noting he has worked on most of the new special facilities projects over the past 30 years.
Kelly added that he lives in Wakulla County, his kids went to school here and now his three grandkids are here.
The Wakulla High School project is to tear down the old part of the original 1967 building – and rebuild it. Kelly said the new building will be more secure: one entry, with traffic coming into the school going through that one way in.
And parking would be directed to one area, so everybody coming into the school is flowing to the one entry.
School board member Cale Langston said he felt good to have someone with grandchildren in local schools designing for safety.
School board chair Melisa Taylor reiterated the district’s commitment to safety for all students, teachers and staff.
Superintendent Pearce noted that, after the recent Nashville shooting at a faith-based school, he anticipated the Florida Legislature would take steps to require more security for private and faith-based schools in the state, such as Guardians and fencing. Pearce said he especially felt the state would create safety regulations for private schools that get state money through student vouchers.
