In the wake of mass school shootings in the United States, we've reached a point where there is a need for armed security officers inside education facilities. In Florida, there seems to be some controversy brewing about how to train those officers. Here's the situation, according to Florida's WPTV:

Aug 15, 2019 By: Matt Sczesny

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Palm Beach County School officials say their interpretation of a new state guardian law is allowing them to privately train security guards for charter schools.

“Their position is there is at least ambiguity in the statute that makes it permissible for them to have security personnel trained by a private company as opposed to the sheriff,” says Bob Gualtieri, chairman of the state’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission.

Gualtieri says Palm Beach County Schools hired the security training firm, Invictus in Boynton Beach to train the guards.

On Wednesday commission members expressed outrage over the county spending three thousand dollars to train each guard rather than use a state fund to have guardians trained by the sheriff.

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Days WPTV's webteam reported that an investigation determined the training program's results were not fulfilling state requirements:

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — A Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office investigation has determined a training program for security guards in county charter schools does not comply with Florida law, according to PBSO and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission.

Late Wednesday PBSO put out a summary of its findings and uncovered the following about Invictus, a private training provider in Boca Raton:

  • The Invictus lead instructor did not have active certification as required by Florida law
  • Invictus passed students' firearms qualifications training with scores of 80 percent, when state law requires 85 percent
  • A total of five students failed the firearms qualification portion of training, all which Invictus documents as passing the firearms qualification.
  • The training failed to include a nighttime (low light) firearms qualification

The other factor is, as Matt Sczesny reported, "On Wednesday commission members expressed outrage over the county spending three thousand dollars to train each guard rather than use a state fund to have guardians trained by the sheriff," so there may be some political machinations at work. Hopefully, everything gets worked out, and those in charge do not lose sight of the true goal: The safety of students, faculty and visitors at any facility.

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