The Brevard School Board has asked for more information on the school marshal program and will hold a series of public forums ahead of a scheduled May 8 vote on the issue.
The proposal, known as STOMP, for Sheriff-Trained Onsite Marshall Program, would allow some school employees to be armed.
The board held its first public discussion on the plan at its April 17 meeting, where staff presented a draft four-part Memorandum of Understanding with the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office. The memorandum is a reaction to new state regulations on school security after the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, including allowing some staff to be armed, and is based on a plan devised by Brevard Sheriff Wayne Ivey.
The three other “layers” of the school security plan include increasing physical security with things like gates and cameras, increased emphasis on active shooter training and identifying at-risk students, and deploying a School Resource Officer in every school.
The board was not scheduled to vote on the item, but it was on the agenda for review as part of the memorandum of understanding. The board opted to pull the STOMP proposal out of the rest of the memorandum so they can vote on it separately at their next meeting. Specifically, the board has concerns about liability and insurance cost.
Several groups protested the meeting, both inside and outside the School Board’s packed chambers. Sixty-two members of the public signed up to speak, most of them opposed to the marshal program, also sometimes called the “guardian” program. In all, the meeting lasted five and a half hours, about twice as long as a typical School Board session.
Fifty-one of Brevard’s 88 schools currently do not have an SRO, and the marshal program is seen as a way to provide security to those facilities. It could also supplement the SROs that are already in schools. Board members say SROs are their priority, but they are grappling with how to fill that many positions and how to pay for them.
“The truth of the matter is we probably are not going to be able to put an SRO in every school, especially for the beginning of next school year,” board member Misty Belford. “So that’s going to leave some schools that are not going to have anyone there.”
SROs come mostly from the Sheriff’s Office, although in some cases they also come from city police departments. The sheriff’s office has said it would be difficult to hire and train that many new officers before school starts next year.
“As a matter of fact, they told us yesterday in a meeting that it could take two to three years to have an SRO in every school,” Descovich said. “We have to look at other options.”
She went on to address the crowd directly in reference to the marshal program as an alternative to SROs: “You may not be comfortable with it, (but) we need other options.”
Descovich also addressed the cost of paying for the additional SROs, which has been estimated at as much as $5 million.
“We may have to cut programs, and then there’ll be a whole new group of you in here screaming at us for cutting programs,” Descovich said. “We’re in a difficult situation.”
Ashley Routh, a mom to two students at Delaura Middle School, was one of many speakers who warned School Board members they would not support them when they are up for re-election.
“I will be a single-issue voter,” Routh said. “Many of the men and women behind me will be as well.”
Routh was part of a large coalition of groups that have come together to oppose the marshal plan. She said the group, like most in the audience, supports the three other parts of the MOU.
“Should you choose to vote in favor of all four levels, your time on this board will be short-lived,” she told board members.
“That is not hyperbole or rhetoric, that is a promise to you. Do the right thing, parents have spoken.”
The crowd booed after the board aired a video in which Ivey touts his plan, and several people held up green signs when they agreed with something a board member was saying, and red signs when they did not.
A handful of people – including one student from Satellite High School – spoke in favor of STOMP.
The school board will hold three public forums, the first being this past Tuesday in Palm Bay, to hear comments on the STOMP program. Upcoming sessions will be from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. and are scheduled for:
- May 1 at the Brevard County School Board in Viera, hosted by Matt Susin.
- May 7 at Jackson Middle School in Titusville, hosted by Misty Belford.
