Parker Calls for "Deputized Marshals"
With a contentious school safety meeting upcoming this week for the Brevard School Board, one candidate for a board seat is floating an idea he calls “a sensible middle way.” Charles Parker, who is running for the open District 2 seat, said over the weekend that he believes it is not an either/or proposition to meet the state mandate to have an enhanced armed presence on Brevard’s school grounds – either hiring new deputies or arming school employees. “I propose that we institute what could be called a Deputized Marshal program,” Parker said. “We could negotiate with Sheriff Ivey to hire and train qualified individuals to protect the schools that do not currently have School Resource Officers. “These individuals would not be full deputies so they would not need radio cars and other equipment required for deputies, but they would not be current school employees either. Hence, they would not cost as much and we would not have all the concerns and logistics problems that