Orange, Seminole schools increase police

Just before 11:30 a.m. on Thursdays, there’s a changing of the guard in Mrs. Miles’ fifth grade classroom at Carillon Elementary in Oviedo. Mrs. Miles moves out for a planning period, and Deputy Adam Brewster moves in.

Forgoing this week’s P.E. class, fifth graders file in armed with owl-embellished workbooks ready for a different kind of lesson from the uniformed man in charge. In schools in Orange County, officers have been beefing up security in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. In Seminole County, they’re also teachers.

“Today’s lesson is about resisting gangs,” Brewster says to the room of 10-year-olds. But before the new lesson can begin, he asks them to recap what they’ve already learned in his previous weeks workshops.

What does “Otis” – the name of the owl on each of the students “Focus on Safety” program packet – stand for?

Hands shoot up as a chorus of voices rings out: “Obey Teachers In Schools,” they say.

What are the gateway drugs? Each hand has a different answer, from marijuana to inhalants to alcohol. Inside drugs? Crystal meth and cocaine, the kids say.

Knowing these answers, Brewster said, provides students with the first step toward prevention of poor decisions in the future, and building positive relationships with law enforcement in the present. It’s like D.A.R.E., but a customizable version covering issues from bullying to cyber-safety with focus shifting based on the needs of the students in each session.

“The kids know what’s right and wrong, they really do, so you’re just giving them that push that they’re doing the right thing … and hopefully that leads them down the right path when they get older,” Brewster said.

Seminole County Public Schools (SCPS) approved funding in February to help make that path a little smoother, voting to expand the 10-week Focus on Safety program being prototyped at Carillon to all 22 of the district’s elementary schools.

The move came a few weeks after Orange County began installing officers at elementary schools in unincorporated areas, amounting to about 60 officers and $3 million.

The Seminole County program will bring 10 deputies on full-time spilt between the schools – one deputy assigned to two or three schools – to increase education and safety on Seminole campuses, said Seminole County Sheriff Office (SCSO) spokesperson Kim Canaday. The $700,000 cost will be spilt between SCPS and SCSO.

“We’ll have ‘Focus,’ but obviously everyone is concerned with safety after Sandy Hook, so then we’ve got extra security here on campus as well, so it’s two fold,” Canaday said.

The move to put more cops on campus following the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in December has spread across the country to Central Florida. Maitland, perhaps fearing a copycat event, put officers in the city’s two elementary schools temporarily, but the city couldn’t afford it for long.

The stopgap, in Maitland and Winter Park, has been to beef up patrols moving between elementary schools rather than paying a full time officer for each post. Middle and high schools already have a dedicated officer at each school.

Principal AnaLynn Jones at Carillon said having the Focus program and Deputy Brewster involved on campus gives her school the best of both worlds: increased police presence, and an added educational element.

“I think it’s an appropriate use of our resources; we’re using the Sheriff’s department and we have the presence on campus, but they’re also educating our children and I think that’s a really important piece to it,” she said. “They’re not just standing at the front door guarding our school, but they’re actually involved in our school and get to know the families and the kids. And I think that’s a much better relationship than just having someone sit in your parking lot.”

Brewster said the mix of the Seminole officers being embedded in the schools serving a dual purpose is what he feels will make Focus continually successful as it expands to the other schools next fall.

“We’re trying to make a vested interest in the school itself. The school is a community within a community, and showing your presence there, the kids really respond to you,” he said. “… If we’re going to be here we need to be productive, proactive and productive. We need to make sure that we’re doing some type of prevention with them ‘cause any little bit helps.”

A quiz after this week’s lesson, and the kids at Carillon name off the three major functions of gangs, and offer suggestions on how they and their classmates can avoid getting involved.

Those who do, “Are not making good choices because they didn’t sit through Mr. Brewster’s Focus class,” Brewster adds with a smile, garnering nods and giggles from his crowd.

A final reminder faces them as they file out of Mrs. Miles’ classroom come 12:05 p.m. from the sign on her door:

“You’ll never regret doing the right thing.”