16-05-2025
Senate Bill 1470 could increase public school safety; see what measures are already in place in Bay County
BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) – The Florida House and Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 1470, which overhauls public school safety and pushes for stricter requirements.
One of the biggest upgrades will affect communications, instituting a centralized panic alert system and digital maps for all campuses.
The bill also requires any district with a security partnership with sheriff's offices to have a guardianship program.
The Bay District oversees dozens of schools with over 27,000 students. While Florida lawmakers are pushing for certain measures to be required, Bay District is ahead of the game by having some of those measures already in place on their campuses.
School district officials did a full walk-through Thursday at Haney Technical College with fire and police. They inspected every nook and cranny, looking for safety concerns.
District safety director Vern Barth said these routine walk-throughs allow them to develop measures before they are required.
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'We've already gone full scale with all of our digital mapping and grid systems. All of our first responder agencies have those to be able to respond to the correct area, correct location at the time,' BDS Safety Director Vern Barth said.
The district also rolled out a guardianship program following the 2018 school shooting in Parkland.
'We do have Guardians throughout the district at different schools, and it's just an extra layer of protection and security on top of our normal school safety officers,' Barth said.
'We like to layer our security to make sure that there's more layers, kind of like layers of offense. You know, you might have an interior fence that is behind an exterior fence, and you think, why do you have so many different layers? Layers are what slow the threat down and allow us to buy time for the good guys to come in,' Barth added.
Governor DeSantis has yet to sign the bill. If he does, it will become law on July 1st.
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