Polk Sheriff Proposes Arming School Staff To Protect Students

LAKELAND, FL -- Polk County's controversial sheriff announced Thursday that he plans to offer concealed weapons training to teachers so they can carry guns and protect students on school campuses.

During a press conference Feb. 22, Sheriff Grady Judd said he is officially launching his Sheriff's Sentinel Program designed to train and arm school personnel in case of a gun threat against students.

While the program's kickoff comes eight days after the shootings at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Grady said it's been in the works since 2016.

He said he's offered the program to private and public schools throughout Polk County. Webber International University in Babson Park is the first to sign on.

"What we're doing is not something we want to do but it's something we have to do," Judd said.

He said he plans to put volunteer teachers and other school staff through a rigorous background check and psychological evaluation, then provide training "that exceeds what is required by police officers to be certified in the state of Florida."

Once the volunteers have been tested and have qualified to use a firearm, he will swear them in as special deputy sheriffs, he said.

"I will give them the authority to carry a concealed firearm on campus with the express and narrowly crafted purpose of keeping students safe and protecting them from active assailants who come on campus with the intent of murdering our students and staff," Judd said.

While he acknowledged that the Sentinel program is bound to have detractors among other law enforcement agencies and school officials, he maintained that it is within his statutory rights to arm teachers.

"As an elected sheriff of the county and a constitutional office for the state of Florida, I have the unique authority to create deputies and give them ... all or a piece of the authority, and that's what we're doing with our Sentinel program," he said. "We can debate gun control all day ... but my first responsibility, my primary responsibility in Polk County, Florida, is to protect life. The most important lives we can protect are the lives of our students."

In addition to Webber International University, Judd said he is currently working with "numerous other private schools" in the county that have expressed an interest in the Sheriff's Sentinel Program, including Southeastern University. He has offered the program to the county's public schools as well.

He added that he's not concerned with the ongoing debate about school security measures in the state Legislature in the aftermath of the Parkland shooting because he already possesses the authority to arm teachers.

"I can tell you clearly and unequivocally that we already possess the law in the state of Florida for the sheriff to ensure that the children can be safe," he said.

Judd noted that the campuses of public schools are the only places where qualified adults are not permitted to carry concealed weapons.

"I've trained 500 to 1,000 people to set up programs at churches and businesses so children will be protected by armed men and women," he said.

"Gun control is in place on school campuses," Judd said. "How did that work last week in Broward County? The only place in the state of Florida where our children can't be protected by a good man or woman with a gun is the school campus. That doesn't make sense to me."

Although he said he hopes a teacher will never need to use a gun to protect a student, he believes the knowledge that other adults on campus in addition to school resource deputies may be armed will serve as a deterrent.

"A crazed madman can't go on campus and hurt people with a gun," he said. "We're sending a message to them that there will be people on campus with guns."

He said he's not opposed to adding school resource deputies or placing metal detectors in school but said those measures aren't foolproof.

"When all those interventions fail or when the madman with a gun circumnavigates the process and walks on campus intent on killing our children, we are going to engage him and shoot him a lot until he's been neutralized."

Joining Judd at the press conference was Keith Wade, president of Webber International University, who said he feels comfortable having teachers carry guns on his college campus once they've undergone the Sheriff's Sentinel Program training and certification.

"This is the last line of defense," he said. "They (armed teachers) will be 15 seconds away, not 15 minutes away. They will be down the hall, not down the street."

Video via Polk County Sheriff