School districts given more flexibility with revised locked door law
By Fallon Silcox
After hearing from school administrators across the state, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law updating the current locked door policy.
Right now, all school doors and gates are required to be locked at all times students are on campus, even outside the hours of the normal school day.
That law has been revised, giving school districts more flexibility. The chief of security for Hillsborough County Schools says while there is more flexibility, students’ safety will not be compromised.
“It doesn’t mean that the schools are any less safe,” said Chief John Newman. He says there is a good chance most students won’t even notice the changes that were made to the locked door law. Classrooms, while instruction is going on, those doors will remain locked. That was not modified in the statute.”
While classroom doors will remain locked, districts will have more discretion. Now, the exterior perimeter of schools must be locked down, but not every single door and gate. The law also defines times.
“What’s the normal operation of the school day? What’s the spirit of the statute? So now it’s 30 minutes before, 30 minutes after, otherwise if you were at a club, or even if you rented one our facilities we had to have those locked protocols in place whether it really impacted your group or not,” he said.
Tracey McConnell teaches third grade in Pinellas County. She says she still has questions about how the updated policy will play out in the fall.
“I know for teachers, it may not make much of a difference if they don’t do something about the individual classroom doors being locked. If teachers still have to man doors in the morning, before the kids come in, then it’s not going to be much of a change as far as teachers are concerned,” said McConnell.
Newman says Florida is ahead of other states when it comes to school safety because of mandates like this.
“I think we’re a lot better off than where we were Feb. 13th 2018, the day before Parkland,” he said of the mass shooting at that school. “All of those legislation sessions mean something and the primary goal is that you should be able to take your kid to school every day and it’s not unreasonable that they come home safe.”
The updates to the law will take effect on July 1.
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