When it comes to safety, Bradford County Sheriff Gordon Smith is not taking any chances.
The sheriff is thanking school officials and the county for agreeing to expand the amount of school 'guardians' throughout the district.
Earlier this week, a Florida Senate Panel passed a measure that would allow teachers to carry firearms, similar legislation is under consideration in the house.
Currently, with training, certain school faculty can carry and become what’s known as a guardian under the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Act.
Each school has to work with law enforcement to have some form of an armed school-safety officer, that can be a deputy or guardian. In Bradford, they have nine deputies and 13 guardians and are looking to add more over the coming year.
“If somebody comes on one of our campuses with the intent to do harm to one of our children or staff, our intent is to make sure that they die trying to commit one of those crimes on our campuses," Bradford County Sheriff Gordon Smith said.
It might not be a surprise to see an armed deputy walking around schools in Bradford County.
To date, Sheriff Gordon Smith said the time and money spent training 13 armed guardians over the last year have been an asset to the county.
“They’re administrators, support staff, coaches," he said. "All they want to do is be there in case evil comes onto their campus that they’re able to stop the threat to our children.”
Smith said the guardians provide schools with an element of surprise having someone armed that’s not in uniform, evening proving effective in recent months training.
“The person role-playing had no clue who the guardian was and we didn’t expect it, but the guardian went straight to the gunfire and did exactly as they were trained and took out the bad guy,” Smith said.
“This year we’re going to have another Academy, we have some more applicants," Bradford County's Sheriff Office Kevin Mueller said.
Mueller, who is a certified firearms instructor, said the county is looking at adding another 13 over the next year. 26 would give them nearly triple the state mandate.
Sheriff Gordon Smith hopes other counties follow their lead.
“You know what, get with it, it’s now 2019 and if you don’t like it, get a thicker skin or go find you something else to do, but my kids are worth protecting and your kids are worth protecting and we’ll do everything we can to keep them safe,” he said.
The sheriff’s office hopes to have the 26 guardians trained for the start of next school year.