Public school districts in Florida are spending thousands of dollars in precautionary measures for school shootings, including insurance coverage and active shooter training. 

Insurance companies across the United States have identified a new niche due to the numerous shooting incidents in public schools, and are creating active shooter insurance policies to cover active shooting incidents. In response, Florida public school districts have begun to budget thousands of dollars to meet this end.

Apart from school shooting insurance policies, the school districts are also investing significant funds into safety training as well as integrating police presence.

Insurance

The Palm Beach Public School District in Florida is just one of many public schools districts that have invested heavily in active shooter protection. The school paid a premium of $100,000 to McGowan Program Administrators for shooter insurance coverage. This policy provides coverage of up to $500,000 to indemnify against:

• Damage to property
• Funeral expenses
• Counseling services
• Monetary losses as a result of school closure and legal proceedings related to school shootings

The Martin County Public School District pays premiums of over $25,000 for insurance against “unfortunate events” resulting from workplace violence or stalking threats. According to the policy, victims are fully protected in cases of violence and stalking after school shooting incidents.

Training

In addition to the insurance policy, Martin County Public School District also employs a shooter response expert to provide students with active shooter response training. For $24,000 a year, ALICE Training Institute–ALICE being an acronym for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate–trains students on how to respond effectively when an active shooter is on campus.

Police & Security

The Hendry County School District already spends more than $400,000 on its school resource officer program and another $159,000 on various school security needs. Even with these measures in place, the district still assigned a budget of over $20,000 to the active shooter insurance policy, which is still undergoing finalization.

These precautions may be costly, but they seem to be necessary considering the unpredictable and fatal nature of mass shootings, especially with Florida already witnessing 21 public shootings this year.

The First Step to Stopping School Shootings is to Stop Blaming Liberals & Conservatives