The Florida House of Representatives’ Criminal Justice Subcommittee met Wednesday afternoon to vote on 16 bills. The bills ranged from the safety of students to mental health and the regulation of unmanned aircraft such as drones.
Representative Brad Yeager (R-Pasco) presented the second bill of the meeting, HB 1403. Filed in February, the bill expands the Chris Hixon, Coach Aaron Feis, and Coach Scott Beigel Guardian Program to include child-care facilities. It revises safety protocols across schools and child-care centers.
The Florida Legislature established the program back in 2018 due to a report completed by the Marjory Stoneman and Douglas Public Safety Commission that determined having guardians in school would be the best way to ensure that highly trained individuals would be able to respond immediately to the threat of a school shooting.
The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act — passed that same year — gave grants to local school sheriff’s offices around the state to have the resources to be able to train individuals wishing to become guardians.
HB 1403 now requires child-care facilities to establish those guardian programs. Local sheriff’s offices will also be required to create a guardian program upon approval of their local school board.
It requires county sheriffs to certify school security guards if they meet specified criteria, including completing a 144-hour training program, passing a psychological evaluation and adhering to firearm safety proficiency standards.
Representative Robin Bartleman (D-Broward) raised concerns over whether private security companies training these guardians for the child-care facilities would have to undergo the same training process as guardians training as guardians for public schools.
Yeager affirmed that would be the case and clarified an amendment to the bill, explicitly adding “certified security guards” to the guardian language in the bill.
“This is going to enable FDLE to better track and report on them separately from just school guardians,” Yeager said.
The bill drew both public support and opposition from the public gallery. Local public officials from Parkland and South Florida waved in support of the bill.
Patrick Lewicki, an economics teacher at Hillsborough High School in Tampa, opposed the bill. Lewicki said the bill did not go far enough in protecting students and also limited the teachers’ ability to provide a comfortable environment for their students to learn.
“While we all care deeply about student safety, the law is so restrictive that they make it difficult to work,” Lewicki said. “My school, in particular, for two weeks, A/C has been out in classrooms while it’s been functioning perfectly fine in the hallways. As the current language of the statute determines it, me putting a door stop to prop open my door so that the cooler air can flow in, is and remains illegal under this law.”
Lewicki mentioned that his fellow teachers were having the same issues.
“Students cannot learn in conditions like these,” Lewicki said. “Nor can teachers teach. I would even argue that these conditions are objectively unsafe.”
Tony Montalto, president of Stand with Parkland, spoke in support of HB 1403.
“I’m so appreciative of everybody to continue to work on this process,” Montalto said. “Personally, and for our organization, we just feel there shouldn’t be blanketed exemptions to the rule about locked classroom doors. Following the lessons learned from the Parkland school tragedy in 2018, the core principle of Florida school safety laws have been to require accountability for compliance.”
Following closing statements, the bill was approved unanimously by a vote of 17-0 and now moves to the House Judiciary Committee.
Two similar bills, SB 1470 and SB 1472, filed by Senator Danny Burgess (R-Hillsborough and Pasco), are currently on the Appropriations Committee on Pre-K – 12 Education agenda. Their next meeting is on March 24.