Bay District School officials upgrading security measures following Georgia school shooting

BAY COUNTY, FL. ( WMBB ) – Anytime a school shooting happens, many parents worry about security at their own child’s school.

Bay District School officials say they regularly stage active shooter drills at all schools. Scenes like this are quite common on school campuses across the country.

Every student and staff member in Bay County participates in monthly safety drills.

Besides drills, students can also turn to Fortify Florida, an anonymous tool to report potential security issues.

Officers say they take the reports seriously.

“No matter what time of day or night, we are going to come to your house and find out if this is true, if your kids were involved in it, and there’s going to be some consequences behind it,” Bay County Sheriff’s Office Captain Myron Guilford said.

The school district’s security mantra is “If you see something, say something.”

Each school also has a Guardian Program, select employees certified to carry firearms. They’ve also received extra active shooter and de-escalation training.

No one except the school principals knows the identity of the guardians.

“We have guardians in the school. They wear plain clothes. They only respond to something when it has to do with an active shooter in a school,” Guilford said.

The state authorized the Guardian Program after the Parkland shooting in 2018. Each school has a visitor screening process to identify visitors on their campuses.

“These measures that we implement and use can take a little bit extra time, but that extra time is what helps keep everybody safe and make sure that we’re doing it in a processed manner and that we are keeping everybody accountable,” School Safety Director Vern Barth said.

Barth says the best defense against school violence starts at home with parent involvement.

“Look through their kids’ phones, check their kids’ backpacks, make sure they’re not bringing anything into the school, such as an accidental pocket knife or bringing a toy gun that could be misconstrued as a real gun. We’ve got a lot of toy guns that have shown up this year,” Barth said.

Bay District Schools have updated security systems at 20 schools in the last three years, equipping the offices with audio and video surveillance systems.

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