Lee County schools looking into Guardian Program options after unanimous vote

School threats are at an all-time high and are now pushing one county over the edge. On Tuesday night, the Lee County School Board voted unanimously to see what the Guardian Program is about.

Lee County is no stranger to school threats. They come in almost weekly. In November, a 14-year-old was arrested for saying she’d blow up Ida Baker High School. In December, a 19-year-old was arrested for writing on the bathroom stall that she had a gun in her book bag. The threat at South Fort Myers High School left kids locked in their rooms for hours with their parents outside, waiting on any word of their safety.

The issue has gotten so bad that the Lee County Sheriff’s Office had to step in.

“In response to the increased demands for school safety, I created the School Threat Enforcement Team, better known as the STET Team,” said Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno.

Lee County Superintendent Dr. Christopher Bernier will work with LCSO and other local agencies to determine what’s involved in training and arming staff members.

Some parents are still on edge, but they want their kids to be safe.

Critics did not hold back; they laid out to the Lee County School Board exactly how they feel about staff members carrying guns on campus.

“I will not send my children to school because they will not be safe, and I am not the only parent who feels that way,” said a Lee County parent.

That may be true, but the board unanimously voted to explore implementing the Guardian Program in Lee County schools.

“I am concerned, you know, with this program, and I want to make sure that I am sitting on this board, I’m in those meetings to discuss what that policy looks like, what the procedures are to make sure that it is solid,” said school board member Debbie Jordan.

Jordan said she voted yes to studying the possibility, but that doesn’t mean she’s a yes to joining 46 other Florida counties that already have the Guardian Program.

“A lot of them are smaller districts. So the counties themselves, everybody knows everybody in those counties. So it’s like, you know, Mr. Williams is, you know, our neighbor, and is also as our guardian. You know, they have uniforms on there, like security guards,” said Jordan.

School board member Melisa Giovannelli is more firm in her belief that trained volunteers with guns on campus are good.

“Our world is changing. And we’re seeing it, hearing it every day. And there are shootings going on across the world. It doesn’t stop there. But our job is to keep students stay safe. Because if they’re not safe, they’re not learning. So we want them in a safe environment and a learning environment. And this is just one step towards that,” Giovannelli said.

The school district will have to work with the sheriff’s office to outline the framework for this program if it is implemented in schools. Volunteers would have to undergo training and pass psychological and drug tests.

Giovanelli said the training would be ongoing, and Jordan said she hopes parents and students can give feedback about what they want this program to look like. Until then, there is no clear answer on what the program will look like for Lee County schools.

“Until we actually get behind closed doors and talk about it. I don’t even know,” said Giovanelli.

Giovanelli said she’s not sure what this program will look like in local schools.

Jordan said the same thing. “It’s going to take quite some time to develop the policy and the procedures for this because everybody has to agree upon it.”

“If there’s an opportunity for Lee County to utilize guardians, you know, we would encourage it. We would definitely be supportive of them,” said Dennis McFatten, director of safety and security for Marion County Public Schools.

That district implemented the guardian program in 2019. McFatten said his armed guardians include cafeteria workers, even principals.

“We vet them throughout the department first, me and my staff, we vet them based on a lot of different factors. Location of the school conversations with the principal, the SRO on the campus, a lot of factors goes into the guardians we choose,” said McFatten.

Who they choose is only known by a select few.

“Nobody knows who our guardians are, nobody but my school safety team and the SRO and the principal on campus. Very few. That’s why they’re concealed carry,” McFatten said.

Jordan said she didn’t like that idea. “I want to make sure that that person is identifiable, that the person is, I know, they’re gonna go through testing, and all of you know that may be a security specialist within our schools.”