Sheriff Calls For Arming Florida Teachers; Better Accountability

LARGO, FL -- Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri didn't mince words and wasn't shy about placing blame for the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

During a press conference Wednesday afternoon at the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, the outspoken sheriff who headed the statewide commission investigating the school shooting was quick to point fingers at school administrators for what he called a "systematic failure" to protect students.

Gualtieri addressed the media following the release of the commission's 400-page report.

One by one, he addressed deficiencies at the high school that he believes contributed to the deaths of 34 students and staff members.

His first jab was directed toward the school's "vague, ambiguous" policy on how school security should handle an active shooter.

"They (school security personnel) were taught and trained to go in and neutralize the threat but that's not what the school policy said they should do," said Gualtieri. "It said you may or shall engage the shooter. It's ambiguous at best. The policy needs to reflect the expectations and people need to know they're going to be held accountable if they don't live up to those expectations."

Instead, when accused shooter Nikolas Cruz walked by him on campus carrying "what was obviously a rifle bag," he encountered one unarmed "campus monitor," Andrew Medina, who had only an hour of training.

Medina was told to put out an alarm only if he saw a gun or heard gun shots. Medina was never told what to do if he saw a rifle bag.

"He wasn't sure what to do," said Gualtieri. "He was never properly trained."

Even if Medina had gotten on his radio and called for a lock-down, Gualtieri said it wouldn't have had much effect.

"There are only a handful of people on this 45-acre campus with 3,300 students who have radios," he said.

Plus, there are no speakers in the common areas to alert students of the danger.

He said Cruz was well aware that there were few obstacles to getting on campus. He simply walked through the pedestrian gates, which are unlocked and unstaffed before and after school. Then he headed to the freshman building, one of 16 buildings on the campus, where the doors were unlocked. He walked into the high school unchallenged.

"Even if there was an effective communications system, there is still no requirement for a classroom to have a designated safe area or dark corner (where the students can huddle out of the shooter's line of sight), he said.

"There are kids who died when they couldn't get into the safe area of the classroom because teachers' desks and book shelves were in the way," he said. "Ten months after the shootings, Broward County still has no hard corner policy or assailant response policy."

Gualtieri's frustration showed itself when he was questioned about the school district's behavioral threat assessment process, the process used to identify troubled students who might pose a danger.

Prior to the shootings, Gualtieri said two students and a parent approached Assistant Principal Jeff Morford about Cruz exhibiting "disturbing behavior."

However, Morford denied ever speaking to the students and parent.

"Two kids and a mother brought information about disturbing behavior like killing animals and Morford said it didn't happen," said Gualtieri. The sheriff said he's inclined to believe the students and mother.

When Douglas High Principal Ty Thompson was asked how many behavioral threat assessments he receives each year, he said he didn't know -- that if they were done, they weren't likely to cross his desk, said Gualtieri.

"Behavioral threat assessments are one of the greatest opportunities we have to make a difference," he said. "The state Legislature has mandated that every school have a written behavioral threat assessment process, that they form a threat assessment team composed of mental health professionals, counselors, law enforcement and teachers who will review complaints and decide if something needs to be done."

Yet, there are still schools in Florida that have not come up with a written process just as there are schools that have ignored the Legislature's mandate to do a school site survey identifying security breeches like the unlocked gates at Douglas High School.

"There just doesn't seem to be a sense of urgency in Broward County and across the state," he said. "Broward is not alone. There needs to be a change in mindset. The Florida Legislature needs to hold people accountable."

As for arming teachers and other school staff, Gualtieri said he believes that's the only way an active shooter will be neutralized before killing an untold number of students.

"People need to put their ideologies aside," he said. "This is about reality and making sure we save kids' lives. The reality is this is going to happen again. The question is where, when and what changes have we made to mitigate the horror."

When former Navy veteran and school athletic director Chris Hixon ran into the freshman building where Cruz was firing off his semiautomatic rifle, Gualtieri said Hixon could have stopped Cruz' killing spree if he had been allowed to carry the concealed weapon he has a legal permit to carry. Instead, Cruz shot and killed Hixon.

"There is no profile, no connective indicators to identify the next school shooter," the sheriff continued. "But we know that out of the 46 mass shootings in 20 years, 43 were committed by insiders, people with authorized access."

And the majority were committed with an easily concealed and quickly produced handgun, he said.

Moreover, all of the shootings were over within four minutes and most were stopped by school personnel.

"It took Nikolas Cruz only three minutes and 51 seconds to kill 34 people," he said. "They happen so fast and you've got to have somebody there who can neutralize that threat fast, and that's not going to be a cop. It's going to be a biology teacher or someone else."

Even if Florida came up with the $400 million needed to put an armed cop in all 3,400 public schools in the state, that armed cop can't be everywhere, he said.

It took Scot Peterson, the school's single armed resource officer, one minute and 45 seconds to reach the freshman building.

"By then, 23 people were already dead," said Gualtieri.

"Not every staff member should be given a gun," he said. "There should be a rigorous selection process. They should have the mindset, skills and willingness to go through background checks and rigorous training."

But he said the decision shouldn't be based on ideology.

"This has nothing to do with not liking guns," Gualtieri said. "It's about whether or not you can live with dead kids."

Image via Pinellas Sheriff

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