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Sheriff Daniels responds to Oakleaf High School threat

By Alex Wilson For Clay Today
Posted 2/22/18

GREEN COVE SPRINGS – A day after a Clay County School student posted a threat on social media aimed at Oakleaf High School, Sheriff Darryl Daniels said there have been 11 such threats targeting …

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Sheriff Daniels responds to Oakleaf High School threat


Posted

GREEN COVE SPRINGS – A day after a Clay County School student posted a threat on social media aimed at Oakleaf High School, Sheriff Darryl Daniels said there have been 11 such threats targeting Clay Schools since the Feb. 14 massacre that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in South Florida.

In a Feb. 22 press conference, Daniels’s rhetoric mirrored the larger narrative about school safety and gun control that is currently moving through the country. While he didn’t clearly state it, Daniels stopped short of endorsing the arming and training of school personnel with firearms.

“I’ll speak on behalf of the Florida Sheriffs Association, which is entertaining the thought of helping to train teachers and administrators on the proper use of deadly force and gun safety,” Daniels said. “There may be a time in the very near future where state funding is made available for us to do that, and teachers and administrators will be carrying guns in schools.”

Daniels said that while cooperation from law enforcement would help initiate this movement, the decision to arm school employees ultimately remains a school board decision. He also said that while there is a dialogue between himself and Superintendent Addison Davis, the subject of arming school personnel has not come up yet.

Since the beginning of the 2017-18 school year, there have been 17 of what Daniels described as plausible threats towards Clay County schools. However, 11 of those threats occurred in the last seven days.

“We have people who want to be copycats. People just want to know that something they did caused an effect or a large law enforcement response,” Daniels said. “None of [these threats] have risen to the level where elements of a crime existed and we could pinpoint the individual who made those threats.”

The most recent threat, directed towards Oakleaf High School, resulted in approximately 40 percent of students remaining home on Feb. 22. Chief William McKinney said the Oakleaf threat is still under investigation.

“At this point, I can’t give you a specific on [the threat],” McKinney said. “We utilize other resources like the FBI and Homeland Security, and they are very helpful, but it does take some time.”

At the press conference, Daniels answered questions from Clay County parents who weighed in via social media. One question asked how parents could confirm their children would be safe in Clay County Schools.

“Well, you can never confirm that your kid is going to be safe in any school or any setting. There are threats that exist both in schools and outside of schools,” Daniels said. “But we take every effort, every step that we can as law enforcement and the protectors of our children, to make sure they have the safest environment they can learn in.”

Daniels went on to emphasize the importance of the parent’s role in this conversation.

“It’s time for parents to be parents. It’s time for parents not to be friends with their children,” said Daniels. “These are real life situations that are going on across the country and in the state of Florida. As parents, we set the parameters about other things, it’s time to set parameters about things like this.”

Daniels wants to increase the CCSO presence in Clay County schools above and beyond the current School Resource Officer program.

“On any given day, there is a law enforcement presence in, or around, our schools. That’s always going to be a priority, but I want dedicated resources for all our schools,” Daniels said.

This desire for more resources is mitigated by the costs of having a dedicated officer at a school. For example, stationing just one officer to guard each school in Clay County, for the duration of school hours, costs approximately $12,000, according to Daniels. However, the CCSO applied for a grant last year to deploy more school resource officers, and Daniels plans to apply again this year.

“I will personally go to Washington, D.C., go to the office of the person who makes those approvals, and ask on behalf of the CCSO that we receive the funding to have more school resource officers in our schools,” Daniels said.

Daniels concluded the meeting with one last word of encouragement for parents and students.

“I think I echo the sentiments of all the sheriffs in the state of Florida when we say we’ll keep our kids safe, we’ll do all that we can,” Daniels said. “That is always going to be the commitment of this administration.”