- September 9, 2024
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State Rep. Paul Renner, State Attorney R.J. Larizza, Putnam Superintendent Rick Surrency, St. Johns Superintendent Tim Forson, Volusia Superintendent Carmen Balgobin and Flagler Superintendent LaShakia Moore at the press conference to announce the Seventh Circuit's "Safety First, Success Always" initiative. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Volusia County Schools Superintendent Dr. Carmen Balgobin. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Superintendents Dr. Carmen Balgobin (Volusia), Rick Surrency (Putnam), LaShakia Moore (Flagler) and Tim Forson (St. Johns). Photo by Brent Woronoff
Flagler Schools Superintendent LaShakia Moore. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Purtnam County School District Superintendent Rick Surrency. Photo by Brent Woronoff
St. Johns County School District Superintendent Tim Forson. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Speaker of the House Paul Renner of Palm Coast. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Speaker of the House Paul Renner of Palm Coast. Photo by Brent Woronoff
State Rep. Paul Renner speaks with Seventh Judicial Circuit State Attorney R.J. Larizza before the press conference. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Seventh Judicial Circuit State Attorney R.J. Larizza and the four school districts in the circuit, including Volusia and Flagler counties, are partnering on a new initiative called “Safety First, Success Always,” to address substance use and violence in the schools and communities.
Larizza, Florida Speaker of the House Paul Renner of Palm Coast and the superintendents of the four school districts, which also include St. Johns and Putnam counties, participated in a press conference Aug. 8 at the Kim C. Hammond Justice Center in Bunnell.
The initiative has three pillars: education, awareness and accountability. The school districts and the officie of the state attorney have been working for about a year on a collaborative approach to deal with substance use, especially vaping, and violence including fighting, threats and guns.
In May, stakeholder meetings were held with parents and students from each of the districts to get their feedback.
“We're in a fight to make sure that we prepare our students, our children, for the future,” Larizza said. “‘Safety First, Success Always,’ is our slogan and that is our priority — to protect, prepare and keep safe our most precious asset, our children.”
The education component will be incorporated into the state’s minimum five-hour required instruction of “Character and Life Skills through Resiliency Education” for sixth through 12th graders beginning in the upcoming school year.
“Collectively, all four school districts will implement education and curriculum on substance use with an emphasis on vaping, because that's a real problem in all of our communities,” St. Johns County Superintendent Tim Forson said. “In addition, assemblies will be held that educate students in all grade levels on the dangers of substance use and violence, impressing upon them to “See something, Say Something.”
“This is being proactive. ... They're going ahead and acting because they see that there are problems simmering underneath the surface in all these areas. The goal, I hope here, is to make those smaller problems today remain small and go away and not become large problems of addiction, of gun violence and other things.”
— REP. PAUL RENNER
In an interview with the Observer, Volusia County Superintendent Dr. Carmen Balgobin said Volusia County will offer a nine-week educational vaping program for first-time offenders.
“There’s a lot of research that they will learn about within that nine weeks,” Balgobin said. “It's a realistic program that is gauged to inspire. But most importantly, change the thinking of the learner and equip them with the skillset that they need to make better decisions in the future.”
John Fanelli, Flagler Schools’ director of student services, is the point person for the initiative in Flagler County. When the student services departments from the four districts got together to discuss their priorities for the initiative they all said vaping, he said.
“Then we started talking about how are we going to address it,” Fanelli told the Observer. “So we're trying not to just give them punitive consequences which really are not getting to the root causes of the issues. So, educating parents on what to look for and educating students on the effects. A lot of times students don't realize that vaping doesn't just affect the lungs. It can cause them to be depressed or to be confused, and they don't even realize that it's the vaping that's doing it to them.”
The awareness component will come through public service announcement videos created by the state attorney’s office with the districts as well as by students for students and by parents for parents, Balgobin said. The videos will be distributed into the communities to raise awareness of risk and consequences.
“We want to make sure they understand the resources that are available to them,” Balgobin said. “We can talk about counseling, we can talk about mental health and some of the additional resources that are available in our communities and how we can bring those resources together and have it on a fingertip so that we can be preventative. But also, if we need to react, that we have the right interventions in place. When you do all those things, you are empowering a community.”
Flagler Schools Superintendent LaShakia Moore said all four districts have been working together to provide a unified message on accountability, which will include educating students and families on consequences of offenses.
“We had our student services staffs work on providing a common code of conduct,” Putnam County Superintendent Rick Surrency said, “so that we provide those consequences and accountability measures for the things that we all face.”
Renner said what State Attorney Larizza and the four superintendents have done is a great example of proactive leadership.
“That was something that was lacking before (the Parkland shooting), and when I look at this, it makes me sad as to what happened as many years ago, because all three of those pillars were absent,” Renner said. “If you read the report about the Parkland shooter, he was in contact with school officials, he was in contact with mental health professionals, with law enforcement, and importantly, many of the students knew that he was not going in a good direction, yet nothing happened. There was a lack of education, a lack of awareness and ultimately a lack of accountability with this idea that we're not going to hold people accountable and somehow the problems will just go away.
“So, this is being proactive,” Renner said. “We didn't have a shooting here. They're going ahead and acting because they see that there are problems simmering underneath the surface in all these areas. The goal, I hope here, is to make those smaller problems today remain small and go away and not become large problems of addiction, of gun violence and other things.”
Renner and Larizza said they would like to see the program go statewide.
“I believe this is the first initiative of its kind in the state of Florida,” Larizza said. “I expect this to be an example. That's our plan. We want to push this out to other circuits. We know how to prosecute, but what about prevention? Wouldn't it be nice if we could prevent a crime before it happens through education, through awareness and through accountability? The bottom line is that we are going to work together to make sure that the community is safe, that the schools are safe. But we're also going to want these kids to understand and learn the consequences when they get involved in something that they shouldn’t.”
