Sheriff Judd makes case for guns in classrooms

BARTOW (FOX 13) - A man who lost his daughter in the shooting spree at Majory Stoneman Douglas High School spoke to Polk County School Board members on Tuesday. Andy Pollack told them that if teachers carried guns, his daughter Meadow, would be alive today.

“I’m on a mission to be the last father to bury a kid who was killed in a school.”

Pollack has also been to Washington, D.C. to talk to the president, and to Tallahassee to talk to Florida’s governor about making schools safer.  He came to Bartow at the request of Polk Sheriff Grady Judd, one of the leading advocates of teachers being allowed to carry a gun on campus.

What began in Polk County as the Sentinel Program is now being called the Guardian program. Teachers and others who volunteer would be trained to carry and use a gun.

Judd says it would run about $3,800 a person to put them through the training.

“It means you can select, evaluate, drug test, psychologically test and train 32 guardians for the cost of one school resource officer,” said Judd.

Judd has consistently advocated for the Guardian program that includes more school resource officers, and hardening schools by installing more security such as fences and surveillance cameras.

Polk’s superintendent has come out against teacher and others on campus carrying guns. However, she will not vote on the issue; school board members will. 

There’s no date for that vote yet.