Deputies to be assigned to every Lee County public school effective immediately

Members of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office held a press conference Wednesday morning announcing the staffing of deputies in every Lee County public school.

The sheriff’s office currently has 60 resource officers in schools and will transfer an additional 40 temporary deputies effective immediately, when students return from spring break.

“Safety is our number one concern and the more resource officers the better and lets just hope tragedies like this don’t happen again,” parent Bryan Bauer said.

Undersheriff Carmine Marceno said the hope is to hire and train additional school resource officers to have at least 100 permanent deputies protecting Lee County students and staff.

The school resource officers will also be in place at charter schools.

Additional steps are being taken by increasing frequency of checks during every shift.

Starting in April, school officials will run monthly active school shooter scenarios. The district said there are no plans to arm teachers at this time.