In the year since the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, top Treasure Coast school and law enforcement officials said they’ve taken giant steps to improve school safety and address mental wellness.

In Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties, the number of armed school resource officers doubled as state law required a safety officer in every school. Schools also increased security drills and examined their facilities, ensuring fences were high enough.

More:Florida legislators file bills to address school safety, guns after Parkland shooting

More: 17 killed in shooting at Parkland school; shooter in custody

More social service and mental health specialists have been hired, as law enforcement investigators stepped up scrutiny of school threats or questionable incidents.

“Without hyperbole, Parkland caused a radical transformation in Florida law enforcement in so far as tactics, personnel assignments, policy and our overall thought process when it comes to school safety,” Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said.

More: School security, safety in St. Lucie County beefed up after Parkland massacre

Investigators said Nikolas Cruz, a former student, went on a shooting rampage on Feb. 14 at the Broward County school that left 17 dead.

The next month, then-Gov. Rick Scott signed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, which addressed a variety of issues related to the shooting, including having a school resource officer or guardian at every school and raising the age to purchase guns to 21.

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission was created to examine failures in security and make recommendations for improvements.

'Heightened awareness'

“Ever since Parkland happened, this has been the top discussion in law enforcement,” Indian River County Sheriff’s Maj. Eric Flowers said. “Every day we talk about school resource, school safety, protecting the kids. It’s at the top of our minds every single day.”

During a recent presentation for the media with St. Lucie Schools Superintendent Wayne Gent, St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara said existing security protocols at schools were reviewed after Parkland. The Sheriff's Office and the School District created a new process for documentation, investigation and information sharing, Mascara said.

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He said if a threat is received and there appears to be some concern about it being valid, it’s not dropped.

“That’s what we saw as some of the (Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission) recommendations from Broward County — that these cases have to be followed up over and over again,” he said. “That’s what they feel did not happen in Broward County.”

Gent said after the Parkland shooting, the St. Lucie school district hired five additional social workers. A spokeswoman said they had nine on staff before Parkland, bringing the total 14. Money was set aside to hire five additional school psychologists.

“There’s a heightened awareness from everyone on campus, from the students to the staff,” Gent said.

Martin County Schools Superintendent Laurie Gaylord said after Parkland, the district hired a director of safety and security.

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Gaylord said they added guidance counselors at high schools, and hired an additional five social service workers who focus on mental wellness.

She said Martin schools already had only one entrance to campus buildings. She said it's been a policy prior to Parkland for all teachers to keep all classroom doors locked during class.

“I can’t tell you 100 percent that every teacher was locking their door, but I think that probably after Parkland, everybody understands why the doors get locked,” Gaylord said.

More:Student recounts teacher being shot while closing classroom door in Parkland

Mark Rendell, Indian River County schools superintendent, said in 2013 there was a security assessment performed on all buildings. As a result of that, they began moving toward having a single entrance door, at all schools, and that most were completed before the Parkland shootings.

Rendell said another security and safety assessment was done after Parkland, as part of state requirements. The district made sure fences are high enough, and that the many different gates and doors are locked during the day.

“Any time a tragedy like Parkland happens, it causes you to reevaluate and review all of your processes and procedures to make sure you’re doing the best that you can to ensure the students' safety,” Rendell said.

Local connection

Indian River County Undersheriff James Harpring is on the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission. Harpring said he got to know parents and personnel directly affected by the shooting.

“When you’re serving with someone who lost a child, and they’re telling you about, and you’re learning about, that child, it becomes much more tangible to you,” Harpring said. “It just reaffirms the fact that we have to have an immediate sense of urgency.”

He said almost everyone felt that such a tragedy couldn’t happen at Marjory Stoneman Douglas.

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“That recurring sentiment, especially in an area here on the Treasure Coast where we’re not in a large urban area and many of our schools are in affluent areas, it just brings home the fact that we can’t look around where we are and say … we don’t have to do all the things that we need to do in order to keep those places safe,” he said.

Harpring said a key point was early information on Cruz and the response, saying it reiterates the importance of taking seriously intervention and warning signs.

“When you get to the point where you have to have a student escorted from class to class by school personnel, then that’s an issue,” Harpring said. “One of the things that we struggled with was the right to a free and full education, but at what point in time do the rights of all the other kids in the school outweigh the right of one particular individual to be accommodated?”

More: Information sharing an issue for Parkland school panel

Harpring said the initial response tends to be the easiest, because law enforcement, a doctor and others can have someone committed involuntarily for a psychological evaluation through the state’s Baker Act.

“It’s the follow up and the resources for the follow up,” Harpring said. “There’s no ability to make somebody seek mental health treatment.”

Parents take note

Parents have seen a difference on campuses, and said they have a greater peace of mind.

Lauren Espitia, 44, has two daughters at Hidden Oaks Middle School in Palm City.

“I have really been impressed as a parent with the way that law enforcement and mental health agencies have really come together to improve school safety," she said.

More: Deputies: Teen claiming to be terrorist threatens to blow up SLC school bus

Espitia said there are a number of aspects to address.

"There’s no one solution," Espitia said. "It really takes a village to keep our kids safe and I think that increased (school resource officer) presence is an important piece of that puzzle.”

Emily Gallo, 39, has a 7-year-old son at J.D. Parker Elementary School in Stuart where sheriff's Deputy Lauren Hines is frequently at the car line where children are dropped off and picked up by parents.

More:Parkland school shooting; A closer look

"I feel like that's a peace of mind that I didn’t even realize I was missing,” said Gallo, also a school guidance counselor. “Could more be done? I think certainly more could always be done, but at this point, I feel very comfortable having her here and knowing that my son has that extra layer of protection.”

A resource officer on campus, Gallo said, provides added value because of outreach.

“She doesn’t just sit in her office at a desk and wait until she’s needed,” Gallo said. “The relationship building piece, she's really good at that."

School resource officers, training

State legislation requires a school resource officer, a school safety officer or guardian be placed at each school facility.

On the Treasure Coast, needs are being filled mainly by sheriff’s deputies, but some municipal police officers are assigned.

For example, in Indian River County, Rendell said Vero Beach and Sebastian police committed full-time resource officers at elementary schools in their jurisdictions.

After Parkland, Flowers said the agency’s school resource program expanded from one sergeant and 11 deputies to a lieutenant, two sergeants and 26 school resource deputies.

More:School officers trained to go for the shooter

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In St. Lucie County, Mascara said they went from 26 to 53 deputies "almost overnight," while in Martin County, Snyder said there now are 24 school resource officers, one of which is a supervisor.

“This is something that happened as a result of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Act, but it happened all across the state,” Flowers said.

Snyder said his agency created a threat assessment group. That differs from the situation before Parkland when a school resource officer essentially handled all issues at schools.

More: Indian River add full-time school resource officers to every school

“When you make a threat now, you’re playing with the big boys, you’re playing with homicide detectives and robbery detectives, you’re not playing with (school resource officers),” Snyder said. “It brings a whole different level of scrutiny and investigative experience.”

Treasure Coast schools have been participating in active shooter training and drills.

“We practice it like it’s the real deal,” Flowers said. “About 17,000 school children come to school every day and it’s our responsibility to make sure that they’re safe.”

Flowers said reports criticized the response of law enforcement officials in Broward County to the shooting. Flowers said he personally sat down with his agency’s school resource deputies.

“I looked them in the face and I said if there’s an active shooter you understand that you are to confront the active shooter,” Flower said.

He said all deputies said they were committed and would “take out the bad guy.”

Safety Costs

Martin County

Resource officer staffing: 25

Cost in 2018-19 school year: $3 million

Who pays: Martin County School District, $2.4 million; Martin County, $600,000

St. Lucie County

Resource officers: 31

Cost in 2018-19 school year: $2.76 million

Who pays: St. Lucie County School District, $1.2 million; St. Lucie County, $800,000; city of Port St. Lucie, $760,000

Indian River County

Resource officers: 25

Cost in 2018-19 school year: $3 million

Who pays*: Indian River County School District, $1 million; Indian River County, $1 million; city of Vero Beach, $57,000; city of Sebastian, $42,000.

* numbers are rounded

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