With the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings and a student kidnapping in Alabama raising the fears of parents, school security has become a huge issue for public-safety officials and educators.
That was evident Tuesday as law-enforcement officers, educators and emergency-management officials from across North Florida gathered to discuss school security in rural counties — and to hear from police who responded to the mass shooting at Newtown, Conn., and the abduction of a 5-year-old boy from an Alabama school bus.
Gadsden County Sheriff Morris Young said everyone at the event, the second Rural County Summit, could identify with their counterparts at the recent tragedies. As a measure of the interest, the summit drew 285 people, compared with 85 last year at a conference on hurricane preparedness.
"I sit back, just like you all, watching my television and thinking, 'That could be Gadsden County,' " Young said. "Who would have ever thought Newtown would be a focal point for this United States on a traumatic situation?"
The conference was held at the Florida Public Safety Institute, near the Gadsden County town of Quincy, and was organized by the Gadsden County Sheriff's Office, U.S. Attorney Pamela Marsh, the North Florida Domestic Security Task Force and the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
Lt. Christopher Vanghelle of the Newtown Police Department and Lt. Paul Vance of the Connecticut State Police were on hand to discuss the Sandy Hook shootings in strategy sessions that were closed to the public. They met with reporters, and Vanghelle, one of the first on the scene after Adam Lanza opened fire, praised the quick response at the elementary school.
"Just us arriving there when we did made that shooter stop and take his own life, which saved hundreds of other lives," Vanghelle said.
But, he acknowledged he could never have prepared for Dec. 14, 2012, when 20 children and six school staff members died.
"What I saw isn't something anybody can ever prepare themselves for, or anybody could ever forget. It's nothing you can ever even describe or imagine," he said.
Yet, Newtown is recovering, Vanghelle said, because of its resiliency.
"Especially from the parents," he added. "They're really a source of strength … In my darkest days, I look towards those who have really lost, the victims, and see how strong they are, and that helps the rest of us keep going."
Also attending the conference were school and law-enforcement officials from Dale County, Ala., where 65-year-old Jimmie Lee Dykes killed a school bus driver, Charles Albert Poland, Jr., and took a child hostage last January.
The days-long standoff ended with law enforcement officers killing Dykes and rescuing the boy, which Marsh called a miracle.
Florida state Sen. Bill Montford (D-Tallahassee) said the tragedies had sparked discussion about school safety by lawmakers during the 2013 legislative session.
"All kinds of ideas floated up," he said. "One — and it's coming back next session --- which I did not support, was to let teachers arm themselves and bring the guns to school. I said, 'No way.' "
Montford, a former schools superintendent and principal, said children are more aware of school tragedies than in the past because today they're "constantly bombarded with media."
"And so it's even more important today than ever before that we take every step we can to ensure that our students feel safe, they know they're safe and, in fact, they are safe," he said.