District presents annual safety report; crisis-alert badge program rolled out to staff

Pinellas County Schools presented the district’s required annual safety and security report at the Oct. 14 board meeting and told trustees the district deployed a new strategic crisis‑alert badge system and completed state-required threat‑management training.

Sean Joel, director of safety and security, told the board the district implemented the crisis‑alert badge program over the summer and distributed badges and training to more than 13,000 district employees across 132 sites before the start of the academic year. Joel said the badges allow staff to alert students and other staff to a critical incident at a campus and to initiate a law-enforcement response to the affected area.

Joel also reported threat‑management training in the Florida model (day 1 and day 2 and refresher training) had been completed by close to 500 core members — principals, assistant principals and law‑enforcement partners — and that the district had trained staff on entering critical data shared statewide.

The director said the Office of Safe Schools conducted 59 site visits to district campuses (public and charter) this year and that most discrepancies found were administrative or documentation issues. Joel said the district remediated those findings, followed assessors’ recommendations and worked with the Office of Safe Schools to maintain compliance. The board’s vote to accept the report was 7-0.

Board members thanked Joel and his team for the report and for bringing the district into compliance where necessary. Vice Chair Caprice Edmond thanked the team for monitoring and addressing areas that needed improvement.