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Top Three Takeaways –December 3rd, 2021
- Florida does a lot of things right but creating safe school zones hasn’t been one of them. A 2018 study of school zones across the country found that none are more perilous for children to traverse than ours.That’s because apparently Floridians are the most reckless when driving through them. Even just myanecdotal observations of what commonly happens in school zones seems to confirm this. Now, this isn’t a new topic. It’s been a point of emphasis in the past with increased patrolsand more tickets being issued but there are logistical limitations to how much can be accomplished through a greater police presence in school zones alone and behavior hasn’t appeared to be changing. So, what’s the state to do? It very well may be the case that coming soon to a school zone near you we’ll have robocops...well sort of. Rather than an Arnold Schwarzenegger-esc cyborg, think SunPass cameras with radar detectors. What the heck am I talking about here? A state senate bill proposed by Ana Maia Rodriguez, which has a companion sponsored by Nicolas Duran, would allow for the implementation of camera systems with radar detection that would capture the image of any vehicle traveling over 10mph above the speed limit in a school zone with the subsequent issuance of a ticket. The bill unanimously passed the Senate Education Committee making this legislation, which has been attempted before, a big step closer to becoming a potential reality. I’ve never been a fan of red-light cams, howeverfaced with continuing to have the least safe school zones in the country, I’d imagine that all it’d take to begin to dramatically impactrecklessbehavior in school zones would be atrafficticket or two for all of the regular offenders.Now inside of the schools...
- School security is workingin Florida.The more we learn regarding the 15-year-old Michigan high schoolmurderer, the more frustrating the horrific event becomes. Of all related attacks it’s clear that warning signs weren’t just out there, they were everywhere. From the “mountain” of digital evidence the prosecutor in the casesays existed, to the fact that the perpetrator’s parents were called to the school to meet with officials regarding his disturbing conduct thevery morning he carried out the attack. So now about what’s happening in Florida. Here’s the bad news. There were two potential incidents this week in Florida. Here’s the good news. They obviously didn’t happen.The more benign of the two involved an elementary school student coming to school with a BB gun in his waistband. School resource officers were quickly alerted to the situationand took appropriate action. The most concerning threat took place in Broward Wednesday night when a 17-year-old Stoneman Douglas student said this in a group chat: I feel like school shooting tmrw. When I sneeze it’s a signal go to the bathroom OK. I hope y’all aren’t snitches. Well, thankfully someone was minding the store and alerted authorities who arrested the student. It’s beyond disturbing to continue to be presented with these threats, however, from reforms passed as part of the Stoneman Douglas School Safety Act to the increased awareness and diligence within our communities, school security has improved and is working in Florida.
- Exercising discretion. Floridians don’t often receive credit for beingpragmatists, but generally, we are.The latest example of this comes in the form of COVID-19 vaccination rates. According to state and CDC data, Florida entered December 19th in overall COVID-19 vaccination rate, via those who’d been fully vaccinated and 18th overall for those who’ve received at least a first dose. Conversely, when it comes to our young children, we’re not having it. Florida ranks 38th in vaccination rate for children between the ages of 5 to 11 with only 10% having been offered up as scientific experiments to-date. As I pointed out in early November, only 185 children had died of COVID-19 between the ages of 5 to 14 – let alone 5 to11 since the onset of the pandemic, or a number that was three to five times less than had died of pneumonia during that same time. It was crystal clear based on data then that the push to have young children vaccinated had nothing to do about their wellbeing - making the claims of those pushing child vaccinations as intellectually dishonest - but insteadhad everything to do with concerns about asymptomatic children spreading the virus to adults. It’s pragmatism by most parents in Florida, that they’ve opted for a vaccination themselves, while choosing not to subject their young children to the future unknowns of the vaccine...for something that really isn’t even about protecting them. Well done. After all, if the vaccines are effective, and the adults are already vaccinated, what exactly is it that the medical establishment is so concerned about here?