Brevard school board gives OK to trained staff carrying guns after promising no vote this week

Moments before the school board voted to approve it at a Tuesday meeting, a hotly contested move that will allow arming of Brevard Public Schools staff was added to the board's agenda.

The memorandum of understanding, or MOU, with the Brevard County Sheriff's Office had been discussed since October, and was available on the board's agenda prior to the weekend. However, on Monday, it was pulled from the agenda, with Assistant Superintendent of Human Resource Services Ryan Dufrain telling FLORIDA TODAY that it was being amended by BSCO.

He later said that it would not receive a vote until a future meeting.

"The agenda is being updated and will no longer include the original MOU for STOMP (Sheriff Trained Onsite Marshal Program), as the information was not up to date," Dufrain said in an email Monday. "It will be moved to a future board meeting for consideration. The district is working to ensure we provide our community with enough time to view any slated agenda items."

But partway through Tuesday's meeting, mere moments before the board voted on the updated MOU, the document was added back to the agenda. The board voted to approve it 4-1, with Jennifer Jenkins dissenting.

What the MOU does

The memorandum of understanding expands the guardian program to allow certain staff members at BPS to carry firearms once they have completed training through the sheriff's office. Those eligible to participate in the program will include "employees who are not assigned to a classroom," according to the MOU, and whether or not they can participate is "dependent on the terms outlined in the applicable bargaining contract."

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The guardian program was established in 2018 through the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act following the Parkland shooting, which took the lives of 17 students and staff and left 17 others wounded. As of 2019, the program was expanded to include Class D and G licensed security guards, as well as certain district and charter school employees. Private schools could participate as of last year.

BPS already participated in the program with security specialists, or civilians with a background in security, military or law enforcement. These individuals underwent the guardian training with BCSO and serve as full-time security for the district.

A lack of transparency

Since the idea of expanding the program was first broached by Board Chair Megan Wright in October, community members have generally shown up to almost unanimously protest the idea any time the topic has been slated to be discussed at meetings.

At Tuesday's meeting, while the MOU was still not on the agenda, only one of the six speakers — Amber Yantz, a mom and school board candidate running for the District 3 seat — commented on the topic, bringing up concerns about whether or not board members had done enough research to determine if arming staff was a safe move.

Becky McAleenan, a former teacher and grandparent of a BPS student, commented after the meeting that she found the situation frustrating, saying it "felt like a sham."

"Listening to those board members try to make it seem like it was no big deal to remove and then replace an agenda item without notice was infuriating," she said. "The disregard of the public's role in public education is astounding."

She added that she believed the meeting would have had much higher attendance had the agenda item been noticed.

"Parents in Brevard have never wanted more guns in schools, and yet these so-called representatives are only representing their own opinions like this is some sort of PTA, not an elected position," she said. "Their lack of transparency, the constant chaos, the disrespect and outward disregard for actual data is astounding."

Katye Campbell, who ultimately voted in favor of the expansion, made a motion to postpone the vote until the next meeting for the sake of transparency. Wright argued that it had been properly noticed and that the amendments to it were minor, making it unnecessary to postpone, but Campbell disagreed, saying that the agenda description had conflicting information.

"There were lots of wires crossed," she said. (Attorney Paul) Gibbs took a look at it and (Superintendent Mark) Rendell took a look at it, and they sent it back over across the street to make sure we got the edits, and everybody agreed."

She added that she felt the public knew it was going to be voted on, but that they didn't ever have a chance to see the new version of the MOU.

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Jenkins, who has been against the expansion since it was first mentioned last year, joined Campbell in urging the board to postpone the vote.

"Do you honestly believe that from October of last year in a public board meeting to now June that the average citizen has this on their mind and is aware that this is taking place today? You can't actually believe that," Jenkins said.

She also brought up concerns about the responses that were given to members of the media and community members who made inquiries about the MOU prior to Tuesday.

"The fact that not only was this removed, inquiries that were made were given a solid response in writing that this will be placed back on the June 25 agenda -- that's a problem," she said. "That is a severe problem of communication and transparency, and it's not the first time that this has happened."

Ultimately, Campbell's motion was shot down by Wright, Board Vice Chair Gene Trent and Matt Susin.

Wright said security is of the utmost importance to the district and that this was an important part of helping protect students.

"Now how we achieve (security), people will differ and they will think it's one way versus the other way, and that's okay," she said. "We've been elected by the people to represent this community."

Several hours after the meeting, Rendell praised the program in a press release sent out by the district and took extra measures to reassure community members that teachers would not be participating in the program.

"The individuals who will be in the program are not classroom teachers or other positions that are part of the instructional staff covered by the teacher contract," he said. "All Guardians will have to go through the same screening process and intensive training that is required by our School Safety Specialists. I am thankful that we have employees who are willing to volunteer to serve in these positions. I am also grateful for the strong partnership we have the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office which provides such rigorous training."

Training for volunteers will begin in July.

Finch Walker is the education reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Walker at [email protected]. X: @_finchwalker.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: School board: Staff trained by Brevard sheriff's office can carry guns