The nation added yet another lethal school shooting to its grim tally Wednesday — this time at a 2,000-student high school in neighboring Georgia.
According to early reports, at least four people were killed and dozens more injured in the latest round of campus carnage.
Three weeks ago, St. Johns County Sheriff Robert Hardwick discussed his department’s upgraded school crisis response resources in detail during an appearance on the 904 Now YouTube channel.
Hardwick said the county is contracted with a firm called Centegix that provides all 6,000 county school staffers — including his wife, Kendall — with an ID card that functions as a silent distress button.
When pressed, the identity and location of the employee is immediately transmitted to the county’s Real Time Intelligence Center, Hardwick said.
RTIC personnel are then able to remotely view cameras inside the school to quickly assess the situation and debrief deputies sent to the scene.
The system also sends alerts to the phones of the school employees who are part of its security assessment team, which can include principals, assistant principals, coaches and other assigned personnel.
Dispatched deputies, Hardwick reiterated, “can’t be stopped” until they ascertain the nature of the distress call.
The county’s top cop — who won his re-election primary in a landslide victory last month — noted that all deputy sheriffs went through specialized training inside county schools last summer.
“Going through scenario-based training,” he said. “We had smoke simulators in there. Alarms going off. Speakers going off. Kids in there role-playing and yelling and getting that environment.”
He highlighted the daily presence of a deputy sheriff in every county school and several “floaters” who can toggle between locations as needed.
“They’re some of the best men and women in uniform,” he said. “Because they do such a great job in such a tough environment.”
In addition, Hardwick’s office has a school threat assessment team that vets potential campus risks to preempt incidents before they happen.
The department is also introducing two K-9 units who will be assigned to school duty, fully trained to detect both narcotics and gun metal.
“I think we’re doing a good thing,” he said of his office’s fortified school crisis response framework.
Hardwick also advised parents to be vigilant when it comes to their kids’ use of technology.
