FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Lee County School District will discuss with students their plan to help troubled teens before a crisis happens. This comes as Florida Governor Rick Scott just signed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act.
South Fort Myers High School is one of five schools in Lee County planning to break the silence about mental health Monday morning, following the tragic shooting at a Parkland high school nearly a month ago.
The bill Governor Scott signed on Friday leaves it up to local school leaders to decide whether some teachers need to be armed. It does state that teachers who "exclusively perform classroom duties as classroom teachers" can't carry guns on campus, unless they have prior experience in military and law enforcement.
The program is also voluntary and requires 144 hours of training.
Four in Your Corner reached out to teachers in our area, and here's what the leader of the Charlotte County Teacher's Union had to say. "If a teacher feels that they want to carry a gun on campus, they need to go get trained as a law enforcement officer and come back as a cop. We have an SRO on every campus in Charlotte County. If we have a larger campus, with 1,400 students, we may need 2, then do that," says Bryan Bouton.
The new law also puts in place requirements for schools to address mental health crisis.
We've got the full details here.
Also in Lee County schools on Monday morning, "Minding Your Mind" sessions will take place at five schools. They aim to provide mental health education to middle and high school students, their teachers and school administrators.
Minding Your Mind programs move away from crisis based response to prevention through education.
During the assemblies, the students will hear directly from other young adults about their first-hand experiences with mental health issues. They will learn lessons they can apply to their own lives and leave with a greater understanding of the signs and symptoms of mental health problems and how to seek help.
