Collier County making adjustments to how visitors enter schools

Private schools in Collier County are responding in full force to the Parkland shooting last month.

“There are certain things you cannot really negotiate and the safety of the students, parents and employees is non-negotiable,” said David Watson with the Community School of Naples.

“We now have four full-time security guards and three of whom are armed. We also have a number of cameras around campus,” Watson added.

The Community School of Naples will start managing visitors differently—making them sign in and enter the school in a separate area from parents.

“We will know exactly who is on campus and at what time,” Watson said.

But the biggest push is education. Recently, the private school brought in an expert on teens and parenting—a conversation open to the community.

“They wanted to make sure our kids and our community had some strategies that emotionally support our children that include kids making sure that everybody is emotionally healthy, because that really drives everything,” said parent Julie Danner.

Danner says the deadly school shooting hit close to home. Her daughter knew a girl who went through the tragedy at Stoneman Douglas High School.

“You can’t put a price tag on safety because nothing else matters,” Danner said.

The private school also sends students to retreats to learn basic core values.

“A kind of understanding of the values we want to implement in this school on a regular basis helps defray the possible costs of not doing further down the road,” Watson said.

The head of the school says while they are adding new security measures, they’ll still maintain their mission of having an open campus.

Other Southwest Florida counties are making safety security adjustments as well:

Charlotte County

Charlotte County schools say more guns in classrooms isn’t the answer

Hendry County

Hendry County sheriff to arm anonymous school staff

Hendry County superintendent addresses safety plan Friday