Lee County sheriff, schools announce 6 armed 'guardians' added to SROs, weapon detectors

As schools across Southwest Florida prepare to begin the school year, authorities and school board officials provided new updates on a program set to begin locally as six armed personnel join select schools.

Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno joined Lee Schools Superintendent Christopher Bernier, as well as county commissioners Kevin Ruane and Cecil Pendergrass, to alert students and parents of an added layer of protection starting this year.

This will be the first year the district will have guardians in schools when students return to the classrooms Thursday.

Rob Spicker, spokesperson for the Lee County School District, said the guardians will be placed in their designated schools of employment, but added officials can't reveal which of the district's 119 schools will have them, citing security reasons.

This year, the school board approved Florida's Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program to train armed school staff to help school police officers in the event of a threat on campus. Spicker said the previous board disapproved of the program.

The program was established after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, that left 17 people dead. The shooter, Nikolas Cruz, 24, was sentenced to life without parole.

Only staff members who are not in a classroom are able to apply to be a guardian. They must then be approved and go through 144 hours of training led by the sheriff's office. Marceno said the first tier went through 160-plus hours of training.

Officials announced Tuesday the first year will feature six guardians' graduates across Lee County schools. Marceno said their uniforms will differ from law enforcement, although they'll also carry weapons.

"Another set of eyes and ears to help us on our mission," Marceno said.

Bernier said the specific uniform is in place so that law enforcement don't confuse guardians with perpetrators.

"They're going to be introduced," Marceno said. "They are part of the staff."

Marceno said guardians will work in sync with school resource officers.

Marceno said guardians will be responsible for their weapons, similar to school resource officers.

The school district also invested $3.2 million to supply each school with two to three OpenGate weapons detection systems. Thus far, 16 of the schools have them.

The Florida Department of Education lists 49 school districts that have the program in place. Lee County isn't yet formally listed.

Are there enough guardians to cover all Lee County schools?

"We never expected to have enough guardians in the first round of training to occupy every one of our schools," Bernier said. "Our goal is to find the right individuals, train them appropriately, background-check them appropriately."

Bernier said officials want to ensure they're putting "the right people" into the positions.

"This will take time to fill and time to grow," Bernier said.

Tomas Rodriguez is a Breaking/Live News Reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. You can reach Tomas at TRodriguez@gannett.com or 772-333-5501. Connect with him on Threads @tomasfrobeltran, Instagram @tomasfrobeltran, Facebook @tomasrodrigueznews and Twitter @TomasFRoBeltran.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Lee County Schools to have 6 armed 'guardians' join district