(CNN) — The Florida House passed a controversial school safety bill that would allow teachers to carry guns on campus. The bill passed Wednesday, and is headed to the desk of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. It is based on recommendations made by the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission after the Parkland massacre last year. The bill expands on the measure signed last year that imposed new restrictions on firearm sales and allowed some teachers and staff to carry guns in school, CNN affiliate WFOR reported. The measure headed to the governor’s desk allows school districts to opt-in to the program and is not a requirement for teachers or districts, CNN affiliate WFOR reported. Teachers from districts that choose to join the program will have to undergo police-style training, psychiatric evaluation and drug screening. “Broward County School Board voted on a resolution against arming teachers in March 2018. We do not believe arming teachers is the best way to make our schools safe,” Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said in a statement. Rep. Dane Eagle supported the bill and said it does not mean all teachers will have weapons at their disposal. “There is no line where we are handing out guns to teachers that walk through a door,” Eagle said.<doc-sep>Anti-gun violence activists are making a last-minute push against a Florida bill that could mean more teachers are armed in the classroom. The Florida legislature passed the bill, which expands on an existing law in the state, by a margin of 65-47 Wednesday. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is expected to sign the the bill into law. The legislation comes a little more than a year after the Parkland shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County, Florida, which left 17 people dead. Many students who survived the attack have criticized the new law to arm teachers in recent days. In an opinion piece published in The Miami Herald late Thursday, Lauren Hogg and Ryan Deitsch — two students who survived the shooting — spoke out against the bill. Advertisement “The governor’s imminent decision to sign this disastrous bill into law would not protect students and does not create a safe environment for students to learn,” they wrote. “Instead, it does the opposite. It takes us one step closer to turning schools into prison-like settings, where teachers are given guns supposedly to protect us — rather than given tools to teach.” Others spoke out on Twitter, calling on their hundreds of thousands of collective followers to push back. 🚨FLORIDA WE NEED YOUR HELP🚨 The governor is about to sign a bill to arm teachers call and demand he NOT sign bill 7030 because teachers need #BooksNotBullets Call 👇👇👇👇 1-855-512-4934 https://t.co/MMddYzNI9c — David Hogg (@davidhogg111) May 2, 2019 “[T]eachers need #BooksNotBullets,” activist and Parkland survivor David Hogg tweeted ahead of the bill’s signing. LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE WHO ARE AFFECTED BY THIS, THOSE IN THE LEGISLATURE DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING TO US https://t.co/90DYwsLAlq — Emma González (@Emma4Change) May 2, 2019 “LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE AFFECTED BY THIS, THOSE IN THE LEGISLATURE DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING TO US,” said Emma González, another survivor. Activists with Moms Demand Action, an anti-gun violence group, also decried the legislation. “Armed teachers have no place in our kids’ classrooms,” Gay Valimont, a volunteer leader with the group’s Florida chapter, said in a statement. Advertisement “The risks of arming teachers are well documented, as is the research indicating there are much better ways to keep our kids safe in school. We implore Gov. DeSantis to listen to Floridians and veto this risky bill. We will remember which lawmakers stand on the side of public safety at this critical time.” If the bill is signed into law, it would be up to the district to approve whether teachers can carry guns. Educators who want to carry, known as “guardians,” will undergo police-style training, psychiatric evaluation, and drug screening. The new bill expands on a law passed last year that allowed teachers who also have another role in the school — like sports coaches — to arm themselves on campus. “It allows the good guys to stop the bad. The bad guys will never know when the good guys are there to shoot back,” Florida Rep. Chuck Brannan (R) said of the law, according to CBS. “The guardian is the last line of defense. He or she will be there when a police officer is not.” Most Democrats voted against the bill, which was also opposed by teacher’s unions. According to a 2018 National Education Association poll, 82% of teachers say they would not carry a gun in school and 61% of teachers who are also gun owners oppose the idea of arming teachers in schools. Two-thirds of teachers surveyed said they would not feel safe if teachers were allowed to carry guns. As ThinkProgress previously reported, research has shown repeatedly that guns in schools are likely to have the opposite affect from what Brannan and others describe and will likely make schools more dangerous. Advertisement As CBS reported, Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony, who was appointed by DeSantis, said in a letter last week that he opposes arming teachers. “This program would place students, teachers, and first responders at risk, when our focus should be on keeping our children safe and making schools places where students feel they belong,” he wrote. “Teachers enter that profession to educate children, not to serve as school security.”<doc-sep>ARMED TEACHERS: A growing number of Florida school districts say they will reject a provision in legislation moving through the Florida Legislature that would allow teachers to participate in the state’s armed guardian program. More from WLRN. BUDGETS: The state House and Senate appropriations chairmen cut a deal on most of the remaining education spending disagreements between the two chambers, the News Service of Florida reports. The plan calls for $248 more per student in overall funding, and $233 million for teacher bonuses. More from Florida Politics. CHARTER SCHOOLS: A prominent charter school lobbyist urges Polk County School Board members to reconsider their recent rejection of a new charter school application, the Ledger reports. • Plans advance for a new charter high school in Okaloosa County, the Northwest Florida Daily News reports. TAXES: A House bill that would require school districts to share local property tax revenue with charter schools does not yet have a clear path through the Senate, the News Service of Florida reports. ACHIEVEMENT GAP: The Alachua County school district prepares to expand the AVID program into more middle and high schools as a way to improve students’ academic skills, the Gainesville Sun reports. Students already in the program say it has helped them. AFTER MICHAEL: The Bay County school district secures added state financial support for Hurricane Michael recovery efforts, but it won’t be enough to avoid laying off about 100 employees, the Panama City News Herald reports. District students and staff continue to feel post-storm stress, the News-Herald reports. VAPING: Florida schools get on the front line of educating children about the dangers of vaping, which is growing in use, the Sun-Sentinel reports. EARLY EDUCATION: Florida’s prekindergarten program reaches large numbers of children but its quality is lacking, the Herald-Tribune reports. TERM LIMITS: St. Johns County School Board members speak out against a proposal to limit board terms, the St. Augustine Record reports. REPORT CARDS: The Monroe County school district considers moving to paperless report cards, the Keys Weekly reports. COURT CHALLENGES: School vouchers appear to be the only controversial issue with a likely Supreme Court challenge ahead to make it through the Florida Legislature, despite hopes for a conservative court to make its mark, GateHouse reports. HIRING: The Volusia County school district considers changes to its hiring procedures as it confronts a shortage of potential applicants, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reports. LABOR NEWS: The state Public Employee Relations Commission sides with the faculty union at Florida Polytechnic University in citing the institution with unfair labor practices, the Ledger reports. TODAY: Senate session, 10 a.m. (On special order: SB 464 prepaid college programs. On 2nd reading: SB 1444 do not hire teacher list) • House session, 10:30 p.m. (On third reading: HB 839 higher education, HB 1127 do not hire teacher list, HB 189 dual enrollment. On special order: HB 190 Bright Futures, SB 7070 vouchers. Several key bills remain on second reading.)<doc-sep>
This image was removed due to legal reasons. Congrats to Florida teachers on the new guns!!! The Florida House of Representatives approved a bill Thursday that would allow teachers in public schools to be armed, according to NPR. The bill already passed the state Senate, meaning it will now go to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is likely to sign it. Guns in Florida classrooms are nothing new. Last year, the state created a program in which armed staff “guardians” in public schools, though the program excluded staff who “exclusively perform classroom duties,” i.e. teachers, according to the Miami Herald. Under the new bill, teachers will likely get to carry guns, too. If DeSantis signs the bill as expected, districts will then get to decide individually if they want to allow their teachers to carry guns in class. It’s likely that most districts will decline, as most of them did the opportunity to take advantage of the “guardian” program. So that’s something. “I unfortunately have to deal with parents who have lost children often because this gun violence is prevalent in my community,” State Sen. Oscar Braynon, a Democrat who voted against the bill, told NPR affiliate WLRN. “A gun being in a classroom, however it is that they’re planning to do it... just the concept brings a different environment for those children.” Earlier this year, a commission created in the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL that left 17 people dead recommended arming teachers in the state. That commission was cited by Republican legislators who supported the bill. The commission was led by Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, a proponent of arming teachers. “So what are we saying to people—we’re not going to allow you to defend yourself, we’re not going to allow you to defend the kids—why? Because of some ideology that we don’t like guns? Anyone who thinks they’re going to get rid of guns is crazy,” Gualtieri told the Sun-Sentinel back in January. “It isn’t going to happen. We’ve got to do something differently and people should be able to protect themselves.” Ryan Petty, a parent who lost a child in the Parkland shooting, told WLRN that he supports the bill. “This allows school districts to add those classroom educators into the pool of guardian-eligible participants and allow them to go through the same process a guardian would go through,” Petty told WLRN. “School districts need the flexibility to choose as they figure out for themselves what’s the best way to protect kids in their districts.” Broward County School Board, which controls Parkland schools, says they will not arm teachers. “The Broward County School Board voted on a resolution against arming teachers in March 2018,” Broward County superintendent Robert Runcie told the Herald. “We do not believe arming teachers is the best way to make our schools safe.” Once the bill is signed into law, it will create a program that requires a 144-hour training program for teachers who want to be armed. School staff in 40 of the 67 Florida school districts have already registered for the program, a spokesperson for the Florida House Speaker says, according to Reuters. The Republican-controlled House was unwilling to budge on many details of the bill, rejecting 20 amendments proposed by Democrats, including one that called for implicit bias training for armed teachers. Discussion of that amendment in particular got heated. “I asked for implicit bias training because we’re talking about black boys and girls that are getting murdered by police officers!” state Rep. Shevrin Jones yelled during the debate, according to the Herald. “There are bad police officers and there are bad teachers.”