After a gun was found in a teacher’s car, the guns on school grounds debate is continuing ahead of the new school year for MDCPS, NBC6’s Chris Hush reports.
The school board of Miami Dade County Public Schools agreed to move forward with a measure Wednesday that could lead to amendments to existing district policy on who is authorized to bring a gun onto school property.
Board member Dr. Steve Gallon authored the measure after a judge found a St. Lucie County teacher didn’t violate state law when he left an unloaded AK-47 in plain view inside his vehicle that was parked in the school’s parking lot.
Watch NBC6 free wherever you are
The judge’s decision centered around the fact that the gun was unloaded and therefore not available for immediate use.
The ammunition was in the console of the vehicle.
Get local news you need to know to start your day with NBC 6's News Headlines newsletter.
“Can you imagine if a tragedy happened at a school or community with a weapon that was taken out of the front seat of a teacher’s car on school campus? We have to make sure that we take every approach we can,” Dr. Gallon said.
The St. Lucie County teacher was fired by the district, but it raised questions in Miami-Dade as to what measures are in place to prevent the same incident from happening here.
Local
“There are two policies that speak to weapons but none of them are explicit enough to have withstood what happened in St. Lucie County. So, we want to strengthen our policy with respect to it being explicit,” Dr. Gallon said.
On Wednesday, all nine board members voted to bring the measure up at next week’s regular school board meeting. If it moves on from there, the board’s general counsel will thoroughly review policies and make amendments where necessary. Dr. Gallon has said he would like the policy to make it clear only school resource officers and armed security guards should be allowed to have a gun on school grounds.
“Through this item, we will be able to make sure we’re very clear about what’s allowed,” said board member Luisa Santos.
The public will have several chances to weigh in on the measure which could be put in place by October 2023.
