Massullo files bill to broaden penalties for threats by firearms and other weapons
Last year the Florida Legislature increase penalties for those making threats using firearms or other weapons. Earlier this year Citrus County Schools and the Sherriff’s Office were surprised to learn that a person who threatened to “shoot up” one of our schools could not be charged, because the threat was made verbally, even if the threat was made to a law-enforcement officer. The law did permit the person could face felony charges under state law for making “written threats to kill” or making a false bomb threat. See Citrus Chronicle article, Floral City man who made threats to ‘shoot up’ school, https://tinyurl.com/yxd7args. Immediately following the situation, the Superintendent of Schools, the School Board, and our local State Legislators Rep. Massullo and Senator Simpson spoke out about improvements that needed to be made to the law.
On October 8, 2019, State Representative Dr. Ralph Massullo filed HB 311, a bill simply entitled ‘Threats’. This bill if passed and signed into law, prohibits threats to use firearm or weapon with specified intent. This bill would strengthen the law and allow law enforcement to act on creatable threats made which results in better protection of our students, staff and schools.
Thank you Rep. Massullo for once again understanding the needs of our community and working to pass common-sense legislation to do what is best for our students and schools.
Athletics Bring Awareness to Breast Cancer at School Board Meeting
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month—the most common cancer in women today. There are about 15,042 new cases in Florida each year, and about 160 in Citrus County alone.
Over the years many athletic programs have brought attention to this cause. CRHS swim Coach Chuck Gatton used this year’s annual rival meet between CRHS and LHS to be a Breast Cancer Awareness Meet. It was held last week on Oct 3, 2019. A rival meet became a meet of two teams coming together for one cause. The teams wore special PINK swim caps for the event with their team’s logo on the side. The team had donation challenge jars and the teams raised about $500 for Breast Cancer Awareness.
We were also honored to have Ashlyn Hunnicutt a CRHS, Junior, Swimmer & Diver who sang the National Anthem at the swim meet to come to sing it for the School Board.
Thank you to all the coaches and student-athletics across our county for having these events and bringing better awareness to Breast Cancer.
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Citrus Multi-Agency Active Shooter Training at CRHS
A small glimpse into the training and drills of our Citrus County SchoolCCSB O=PD s protectors. This video is from a recent multi-agency training day where our school staff and administrators were witnesses.
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DEADLINE Approaches- iPad Insurance available for Citrus School student issued devices
The deadline for OPTIONAL iPad insurance is September 30th.
Citrus County Schools is providing this information about optional iPad insurance for families.
Securranty – is now offering OPTIONAL iPad insurance to families. If you choose to participate in this insurance, it is an agreement between you and the company. At a cost of $29.95 a year, parents can file unlimited claims with Securranty for up to $350 in coverage for a host of issues, from cracked screens to theft. There is a zero-deductible. The device, accessories, and all necessary software is provided free of charge but, in accordance with district policy, parents/guardians may be held financially responsible for damage, loss, or theft of the device under certain circumstances.
Citrus County Schools is providing the information about optional iPad insurance for families. Citrus County Schools does not endorsing the company. Citrus County Schools offers no warranties or representations with this information.
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On Tuesday, September 17, 2019, a video produced by Sandy Hook Promise was distributed through the internet and has been quickly going viral. The producers attached a special warning to the video which says, “this PSA contains graphic content related to school shootings that may be upsetting to some viewers. If you feel that this subject matter may be too difficult for you, you may choose not to watch this video.”
Sandy Hook Promise states that their mission is, “to create a culture engaged in preventing shootings, violence, and other harmful acts in schools.”
While this video is hard to watch, it gives to those not in our schools and classrooms a glimpse of what our students, teachers, and staff are dealing with every day in our schools. These trainings and conversations are happening in nearly all schools whether the schools are public, charter or private. School safety is not limited to the type of school.
If you are willing, I believe this video is worth watching. It will undoubtedly stimulate conversation. It will be controversial and will be criticized by some and praised by others, but I implore you to understand that this video does show the type of drills, conversation, thoughts, worries and fears that students and schools deal with every day, while also having meeting the academic needs, and in public and charter schools having to meet the ever-growing state mandates placed on local school districts, schools, and classrooms.
Bishop wrote in her column that while Citrus 2020 Vision Check did not address career and technical education the Citrus 2030 Vision Check will. She shares, “The mere emergence of the topic as part of Citrus 2030 Vision Check is indicative of how things have changed in regard to options available to students (the theme Destiny by Choice being apropos, there being more choice in post-secondary education now).
Bishop a former middle school principal talks about the role of career education in our schools, she says, “Middle school should be more exploratory for students to learn about career options. High school should then take a more applied approach to exploration. The next step becomes the high schools working closely with post-secondary educators for seamless transition”. We are seeing this in Citrus County Schools where we have 140 separate CTE courses, covering approx. 75 industry certifications, that connect to 28 different Program of Study Pathways are available to our high school students.
Bishop believes we have great opportunities in career and workforce and that we can accomplish so much by, “expanding partnerships between business and education”.
Last year the Florida Legislature increase penalties for those making threats using firearms or other weapons. Earlier this year Citrus County Schools and the Sherriff’s Office were surprised to learn that a person who threatened to “shoot up” one of our schools could not be charged, because the threat was made verbally, even if the threat was made to a law-enforcement officer. The law did permit the person could face felony charges under state law for making “written threats to kill” or making a false bomb threat. See Citrus Chronicle article, Floral City man who made threats to ‘shoot up’ school, https://tinyurl.com/yxd7args. Immediately following the situation, the Superintendent of Schools, the School Board, and our local State Legislators Rep. Massullo and Senator Simpson spoke out about improvements that needed to be made to the law.
On October 8, 2019, State Representative Dr. Ralph Massullo filed HB 311, a bill simply entitled ‘Threats’. This bill if passed and signed into law, prohibits threats to use firearm or weapon with specified intent. This bill would strengthen the law and allow law enforcement to act on creatable threats made which results in better protection of our students, staff and schools.
