PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Palm Beach County School officials say their interpretation of a new state guardian law is allowing them to privately train security guards for charter schools.
“Their position is there is at least ambiguity in the statute that makes it permissible for them to have security personnel trained by a private company as opposed to the sheriff,” says Bob Gualtieri, chairman of the state’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission.
Gualtieri says Palm Beach County Schools hired the security training firm, Invictus in Boynton Beach to train the guards.
On Wednesday commission members expressed outrage over the county spending three thousand dollars to train each guard rather than use a state fund to have guardians trained by the sheriff.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff is currently providing protection at charter schools while they also examine the private training and try to determine if it meets state guardian standards.
“I know sheriff Bradshaw is going to make an objective call on it and if he finds they aren’t properly trained he’s not going to sign off on this and he shouldn’t,” Gualtieri said on Wednesday.
