Duval County Public Schools approves new job for armed school safety assistants

Armed school safety assistants will patrol some Duval County schools in the fall.

It's a new type of position, adding to the number of school police officers already working for the district.

The presence of the armed assistants is causing some parent's to be concerned about the safety of their children.

“They shouldn’t be able to have any Tom and Harry on the schools.They need to have them trained,” said a mother who didn’t want to be named.

The Duval County School Board approved having school safety assistants on campuses.

Parents are worried about whether candidates for the position are qualified to use deadly force.

“It’s not something that would be a smart move,” parent Jennie Lepis said.

The only requirements to apply for the job are that the candidate must have a high school diploma and some experience in a security-related field and must be able to read, write, speak and understand English.

“It’s about time we have someone there to protect our students,” a mother said.

The only board member who didn’t support the plan was Ashley Smith Juarez, who thinks the 144 hours of training from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office isn’t enough.

“An officer is in the academy for two years before becoming a sworn officer,” Smith Juarez said.

School board member Scott Shine supports the new position and said the district needs to have more than 100 school safety assistants in place before the start of the school year.

“They will be trained. (It's a) very serious program. People should not be worried. (It) will provide a level of security we did not have in the past,” Shine said.

The school safety assistants will make roughly $20,000 a year.

And since they aren’t officers, they can’t make arrests or break up fights.

Cox Media Group