Hillsborough County (Fla.) board approves 1st phase of plan adding armed security to elementary schools

Every public elementary school in Hillsborough County, Fla., could have an armed officer patrolling its halls within four years. The Tampa Tribune reports that the county school board has voted 4-3 to approve the first phase of a $4.5 million security plan. The district will phase in “community school officers'' – who are not sworn law enforcement officers but district employees – over the next four years. The board approved $815,000 in funding for the first year. This school year, 20 community school officers and two school security specialists will be hired to patrol 20 district schools.