Sarasota School Board discusses safety following threat to Lakeview Elementary

At its first meeting since Hurricane Idalia, the Sarasota School Board approved a new communication plan and discussed a threat made against Lakeview Elementary School in August.

Several members of the public voiced concerns over gun safety and school safety following a threat made by a Sarasota Middle School student against Lakeview Elementary School in late August. The student drew a map of the school and named two specific teachers as targets. The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office investigated the threat and took the student to Bayside Center for Behavior Health for treatment, according to the incident report entered in the court filing.

Following public comment, the board moved to approve a new Superintendent/School Board communication plan that outlines best practices for how each entity provides information to one another. Board Chairwoman Bridget Ziegler has previously expressed a breakdown in communication between herself as a board member and former superintendent Brennan Asplen.

Derek Pirozzi, who said he was the husband of a Lakeview Elementary teacher targeted by the student, said he felt the school board had done all it could, but at the end of the day, he felt law enforcement needed to go further.

"That person who targeted my family, to murder them, is home and still has access to guns," he said.

Pirozzi spoke of fearful experiences and a stressful several weeks since the threat. He said with the student out of custody and awaiting further hearings, he hopes the system keeps him and his family safe.

"I look out my windows every night. I guess that's all I can really do," he said.

Erica Heister, the parent of two Lakeview Elementary students, asked the board if parents could know whether the student who made the threat was registered to attend the same school as their child.

"If I'm registered for school, can I find out if this particular student is in the school before I register my own children? Is that a parental right that I have to protect my kids?" she asked.

Board member Tim Enos, who was the chief of the district's police department, an executive director of the Florida Association of School Resource Officers, and testified before the state Legislature on best safety practices after the Parkland shooting, addressed school safety concerns at the end of Tuesday's meeting.

Sarasota's school safety protocols are second to none, he said.

"I can tell you that we meet and exceed by far every national standard that relates to school safety in the country," he said.

Addressing concerns over the privacy of the student who made the threat, Enos emphasized that everyone, even those who committed a crime, has rights.

"Citizens also have rights, no matter if they're the bad guy or not," Enos said. "We have to make sure as a society that we maintain their rights as well as we maintain the rights of everybody else."

Ziegler echoed Enos' sentiment regarding privacy, but said she understood the frustration from the public.

"There is a limitation from a legal standard of what we can say, and I know as a parent that's got to be — it's frustrating," she said.

Communication plan

The board approved a Superintendent and School Board Communication plan that outlines best practices for how each party should communicate.

One line of the plan directs the superintendent to send regular emails to the board members updating them on relevant and pertinent information. The superintendent will also provide the board with a copy of upcoming meeting agenda packets eight days in advance.

One line of the plan outlines that any constituent contacting a board member with concerns will be referred to the superintendent. Michelle Pozzie, a local activist, expressed concerns over this directive during public comment.

"It's unclear to me whether or not you're trying to give the directive for school board members to respond, 'I have passed your email on to the superintendent.' or if you're also allowing them to continue to engage with their constituents, which is something we need," Pozzie said.

Following board business, Superintendent Terry Connor addressed communications concerns clarifying that members of the public can always contact school board members.

"You can always go out and reach out to your board members for whatever reason," Connor said. "In matters of concern and for the daily operations of the schools, it is important that the board members share that consistently with the superintendent so that they can be addressed efficiently and effectively."

Another line in the plan stated that school board members must notify a school's principal and the superintendent before making a visit. Pozzie asked that the board strike the line from the plan, as warning a school's leadership that a school board member is dropping by could defeat the purpose of a school visit altogether.

Ziegler said if a board member needs to drop by a school unannounced, then there's already been a breakdown in trust. Board member Tom Edwards said he would never visit a school unannounced.

"That screams to me 'mistrust' and 'gotcha,'" Edwards said. "That's really not why I visit schools. I visit schools to show solidarity. I visit schools to learn. I visit schools to hear and to listen, and that helps, in my opinion, make me a better school board member."

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota School Board discusses safety amid Lakeview Elementary threat