DANIA BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - Broward school officials demonstrated new security measures put in place this school year to help students and parents feel safe.
A celebration was held at Olsen Middle School in Dania Beach, Monday, to highlight improvements made as students gear up to return to class, Wednesday.
“It’s been a tremendous amount of work that we’ve been doing,” said Broward County Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie.
New fencing, additional cameras, armed guards and single points of entry have been implemented in the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas massacre on Feb. 14.
Although not every school will have single point entry, Runcie said all schools will have “components” of single point entry.
Runcie also said every school will still reach district safety standards.
“If you go to any school campus, you will notice the differences, the teachers, everyone,” Runcie said. “They see it, they feel it.”
Stoneman Douglas will feature all of the aforementioned security measures, but parents still feel like it’s not enough.
Fifteen-year-old Anthony Borges will be entering his sophomore year after he was shot five times in the Parkland massacre.
However, Borges’ father said he won’t be returning to any school and will be homeschooled instead.
“Six months later, they don’t fix nothing,” said Royer Borges. “They don’t do nothing to change the environment, the school to get safe, so it’s not safe for us.”
Royer said he felt that holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony was an insensitive way to promote the new security measures.
“That’s just politics,” Runcie said. “I’m not gonna change necessarily the behavior of what we do in the district and continue to celebrate things that we do in the district because someone makes a statement about it.”
Although it was discussed over the summer, metal detectors won’t be installed at Stoneman Douglas.
“It’s not totally off the table, but we need to explore it based on having good information,” Runcie said.
Officials said every public school in the district will have at least one armed guard on campus.
Not every armed personnel on campus will be a school resource officer. Some will be part of the Guardian program with a law enforcement background.
The goal is to eventually receive funding to have SROs at every school.
“We have the referendum that’s on the Aug. 28 ballot, and that’s to help us secure additional resources in terms of security staff,” Runcie said.
More funding for mental health resources are also being requested.
“We’re in the process of hiring about another 50 counselors, social workers, behavioral specialists,” Runcie said.
Schools across Broward will hold code red drills every month with the first one beginning two weeks after the first day of school.
“For some, I get calls, ‘Hey, this is too much.’ For others, it’s not enough,” Runcie said. “We’re just gonna continue to do what we can.”
Parents will receive a notice the day before to help their child prepare mentally.
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