Orange schools look to expel, send to alternative programs students who threaten campuses

Orlando Sentinel | By Silas Morgan | September 27, 2024

The Orange County school district plans to impose stricter punishments on students who threaten schools and will again discuss whether putting a walk-through weapons detection system at its high schools makes sense as it deals with a wave of threats and gun arrests.

Board member Alicia Farrant, whose district includes Boone High School, where two students were arrested on Sept. 13 for bringing a loaded gun onto campus, on Tuesday asked the board to reconsider a walk-through weapons detection system. Orange County Public Schools tested such a system in several schools earlier this year but decided not to install at its 23 traditional high schools. Some parents now think such a system is needed.

“I’ve had tons of parents who have reached out, and not even just in district three, but all over,” she said. “It seems parents really are trying to understand why do we not have the weapons detection system. And if we don’t, what are we doing moving forward, and if we do, what does that look like like?”

Farrant acknowledged the logistical problems and financial costs when the system was tested, but asked the board to discuss the issue again.

Superintendent Maria Vazquez said the board would do that at an upcoming meeting — one held behind closed doors because it pertains to security. Farrant noted the board had multiple closed sessions last week to discuss safety measures and said she would hoped it could get more details about the weapons-detection system at the upcoming one.

Vazquez said an “unheard of” number of threats have strained law enforcement and district staff and impacted the mental health of teachers and students.

The district plans to hand down tougher punishments to students who threaten schools, she said, looking to to expel students who have weapons and threaten schools and send to an alternative school students who make threats but do not have weapons.

The district’s student code of conduct lists threats against schools as among the most serious violations, and they are already punishable by expulsion. Lesser punishments have been an option, too, but now the district will impose the harsher penalties, officials said.

Vazquez said the district dealt with a threat on Tuesday by a student who later said they had not meant it.

“That’s just not acceptable anymore,” she said. “I think we have to take a stronger stance on the consequences because our children, our employees, are having to deal with this, and we internalize it and are not dealing with the impact it’s having on us.”

Vazquez said the threats traumatize students and faculty and need to stop.

“I think we have to revisit how we allow our students and the adults in the schools to be able to process that,” she said, “but more importantly, we have to find a way to stop these threats from infiltrating our school.”

Parents, Vazquez added, need to keep their guns from their children and tell their children to report any threats they see rather than reposting them, as the sharing of threats on social media contributed to the issues faced by the district recently.

Board member Melissa Byrd had her own message for parents, mentioning how a 15-year-old Apopka High School student was charged with a felony that will remain with them for life after making a threat during a livestreamed pep rally last week.

“Anyone who is listening, can you please share with every single child you know that these are not jokes and they have to stop,” she said,” and making a stupid mistake or saying it’s just a joke is not an excuse, and the police do not care. They’re fed up with it.”

School districts in Central Florida and across the state and nation have grappled with threats about school shootings since the shooting deaths of four people at a Georgia high school on Sept. 4.

Threats made in Central Florida included ones made by the Apopka High student and another in Sanford, both of whom were arrested, but also many others police had to chase down. In recent weeks, students also were arrested for bringing guns or gun parts to campus at Boone, Ocoee High School and Lake Brantley High School.

Orange County Public Schools spent $475,000 on the weapons-detection devices last year and announced a pilot to test them at seven high schools during the 2023-24 school year, planning that they would be on all campuses in August.

But soon after the systems debuted at Wekiva and then Boone high schools problems cropped up, including lines that kept students from getting to first-period class on time. The district cut the pilot short, trying out the devices at only four high schools.

The biggest problem, Vazquez said at a late January school board meeting, was that screening all students every morning took more employees than expected. Officials later said each high school would need 10 more employees to run the system, and that was too costly.

“It’s a huge ship, we can’t do everything like on drop of a hat and make changes quickly,” Farrant said Tuesday as she suggested the school district reconsider the weapons-detection system. “I wish we could, but it has to be equitable so every school would be able to receive the same type of security.”