Walton County School Board Makes Security Changes

The Walton County School Board is re-evaluating safety following a shooting incident last month during a Bay District School Board meeting.

Walton’s board met for the first time in New Year tonight and is making some changes.

The Walton School Board hasn’t had much security in the past.

Superintendent Carlene Anderson says in the past they’ve asked for a school resource officer or sheriff’s deputy when dealing with controversial issues, but that was only at particular meetings.

But tonight it was evident that things have changed. The school resource officer program supervisor, Sgt. Artie Rodriguez, was uniformed and armed during the meeting.

According to chairman Sharon Roberts, meetings will go on as planned now, but never without the presence of a uniformed deputy. Roberts says each Walton School Board member expressed a desire to have a deputy present at meetings after December, so the superintendent took actions necessary to ensure the school board meetings could be conducted safely and securely.

Roberts says “…we’re going to take every precaution we can to keep our board, our employees, and our constituents that come out to see the meetings safe, as well as our students. There’s often times we have the students here to give them awards and things, and we want to make every effort to keep everyone safe.”