DCPS, COJ announce new partnership to protect schools from an active shooter attacks
The Duval County Public Schools and the City of Jacksonville announce a new partnership to protect schools from active shooter attacks.
Schools across the nation are looking for ways to improve their safety and security measures, following the deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas last week.
The City of Jacksonville and the Duval County School District announced their plans to hire Armoured One, a company that specializes in equipping schools to prepare for active shooter attacks.
Action News Jax Courtney Cole went to the news conference to learn more about their plans.
Duval County Public Schools Superintendent, Diana Greene, said hiring Armoured One started as Mayor Lenny Curry’s initiative. She said he has been working with the company for the last five months.
However, she said she was invited to be a part of the initiative and the district is looking forward to going deeper into a collaboration to find lasting solutions.
“There is not a day that goes by that I, or this board, does not think about school safety,” Greene said Wednesday afternoon in the city hall atrium.
She continued by telling the room, filled with people and cameras that physically and emotionally, she wants all students to think of schools as the safest place they can be.
That’s why they’re working with Armoured One, a safety, and security company created by Tom Cyyz, a now-retired homicide detective and SWAT team operator, and his business partner, Tino Amodei, in response to the Sandy Hook massacre.
“We don’t want it to happen here. We don’t want it to happen anywhere in America. And when we’re not prepared that’s when we’re seeing these things happen,” said Czyz.
Czyz traveled to Jacksonville to be a part of today’s news conference.. He said their primary focus is K-12.
“We study data and analytics of what happens at the school districts to be able to say this is a real solution,” Czyz said.
The company offers attack-resistant glass and window film, active shooter training, and security assessments.
Duval County Public Schools already have safety protocols in place, including but not limited to:
Every school has an armed police officer or guardian that has received law enforcement training
Camera surveillance in all schools
Lockdown drills that are practiced
“I don’t want our students to just feel safe, I want them to be safe,” said Greene.
Curry said this initiative is going to cost just under $100,000 and the money is going to be included in his upcoming budget.
“My main job is to prevent anything like what happened in Texas from happening in Duval County Public Schools,” said Cheif Greg Burton of Duval County School Police Department.
Burton believes collaboration with Armoured One can help them achieve that goal. Burton
couldn’t elaborate on the specific services he thinks they’ll need at this time, but did say this:
“What we will get from them most of all, they have experience. Extensive experience, in assessing situations where these shootings have occurred,” Burton said.
Courtney Cole: “Can you talk to us about maybe some other schools or school districts that you are successfully working with right now?”
Czyz: “We actually work in all 50 states. We’re working with some of the top five school districts in the whole entire world.”
Czyz said they can’t mention specific school districts because they are under non-disclosure agreements.
When it comes to how long this partnership could last in Duval County, Curry said: “You try it, you expect that it’s going to work and you keep funding it.”
Burton said they are also about a year-and-a-half into a three-year plan to increase facility hardening at all schools using the recently passed half-cent sales tax.
For more information, please visit: https://armouredone.com/.
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