Parkland, Florida, school district rejects funds to arm teachers

Source: Reuters




APRIL 11, 2018 / 11:32 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO

Gina Cherelus

(Reuters) - The Florida school district that includes the Parkland high school where a gunman massacred 17 teens and teachers rejected its share of new state funding intended to arm educators to help them fight off attackers, county officials said Wednesday.

The Feb. 14 attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School ramped up a long-running U.S. debate on gun rights and sparked a youth movement led by survivors of the attack, many of whom have been critical of the idea of arming teachers.

The Broward County School Board, which oversees schools including Stoneman, said in a statement Wednesday it had voted unanimously against accepting money from a $67 million statewide program, signed into law last month by Governor Rick Scott as part of a package of gun-control and school safety measures.

Board members said, instead, that they want Scott, a Republican who earlier this week launched a run for the U.S. Senate, to allow them to allocate the money in other ways, such as providing additional funding for armed school resource officers.”We should definitely launch a campaign to persuade the governor — for those districts who don’t want to arm their employees, that they give us the money to keep our children safe in other ways,” school board member Robin Bartleman said at the meeting, according to the Miami Herald.



Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-guns-florida/parkland-florida-school-district-rejects-funds-to-arm-teachers-idUSKBN1HI2FL