By the time Hillsborough schools open Aug. 10, they’ll need to have 107 additional armed personnel willing to face off against AR-15s.

Seven days after a shooter killed 14 students and three school staff members and injured 17 others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the Florida legislature introduced Senate Bill 7026, called the “Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act,” which, among other things, mandates armed guards at all Florida public schools. On March 5, the bill passed 20-18 in the Senate; the amended bill passed 67-50 two weeks later, and two days after that, Governor Rick Scott signed it into law.

This law allows school boards to use teachers and support staff to fill that position — an option that had many up in arms — but Hillsborough County’s using the exact language of the law to keep teachers focused on educating students.

Florida communities are choosing to approach the state’s armed-presence mandate in different ways. Some counties, for instance, will use certified law enforcement officers, which comes with a hefty price tag. The law’s written, too, so that teachers can have guns in the classrooms in case of an active shooter. That’s called the Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program, and it stipulates that any school board employee with a valid concealed carry permit who has undergone a psych exam, drug test and 132 hours of training can bring that weapon to school to fill the “armed presence” requirement.

This, of course, has created some debate: Do we really want a teacher who may have had an active shooter in his or her class, and may have been a confidante to that troubled student, to be the one responsible for “taking down” that student? Is it morally acceptable to ask a teacher who satisfies the “armed presence” requirement to leave their own students to seek out an active shooter? Would the teachers who qualify as an “armed presence” have to buy their own bulletproof vest and ammunition? Don’t teachers have enough to do already without acting as the first line of defense against semi-automatic (or other) weapons?

While lawmakers may have included this clause to allow a potentially violent expansion of a teacher’s job description, Hillsborough County has found a way to use the language of the Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Progam to keep teachers gun-free. Keying on the part that says “school board employee” instead of “teacher,” they’ve created a hybrid program.

The Hillsborough County School Board can hire a guard and train them to a higher level than a teacher with a concealed carry permit, and it’s putting those people in the schools instead of asking teachers to be the first line of defense. They’re called School Security Deputies, and their entire purpose will be to go to school to potentially respond to active shooter situations.

Hillsborough County already has School Resource Officers in all of its middle and high schools, as well as in 40 of its elementary schools. These SROs — many of us may remember them as “Officer Friendly” — will satisfy the “armed presence” requirement. The rest of the elementary schools, though, will need someone. Instead of arming kindergarten teachers, they’ll use retired law enforcement officers, law enforcement reservists and, when no other option exists, law enforcement officers.

The ultimate goal, Danny Alvarez, Hillsborough County Sheriff Office’s head of public information says, is that the school board will staff those positions, but they don’t have enough people yet. They’re hiring them now, but the training requirements mean these officers may not be ready for one or two years. So, when students return to school (or start kindergarten) Aug. 10, HCSO will backfill the positions with its own staff. Whether they’re retired HCSO deputies or others, they’ll all have a G-Level security license (which has stricter requirements than a concealed carry permit), have undergone all appropriate psych and drug screenings and, while they won’t be certified to make arrests or carry out other duties law enforcement officers can, they’ll have higher levels of training than “good guys with guns.”

They’ll get 132 hours of training, including active shooter proficiency training — which they’ll have to take every year.

The SSDs will be HCSO retirees, former LEO or reservists, all working on 10-month contracts, that HCSO will pay from its own budget, until the school board can bring its own armed responders on board. SSDs will earn $24.77 per hour and work eight hours a day.

Alvarez says HCSO will pull deputies from across the department, and will do so to best minimize the impact to 911 responders.

Why is HCSO stepping in? While SB 7026 makes having an armed responder at each school the school board’s responsibility, every county’s sheriff’s office must oversee the plan.

Both the SROs and the elementary school “armed responders” will carry semi-automatic pistols, as do most law enforcement officers in Florida.

As for the teachers? They’ll carry chalk.

“…it is best to be ready to act intelligently when the appropriate opportunity arises.” —Marjory Stoneman Douglas

Here's how our local representatives voted on SB 7026, about arming teachers:

FLORIDA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:

Pinellas

Yes:

Larry Ahern (R)

Kathleen Peters (R)

Chris Sprowls (R)

No:

James Grant (R)