“There’s nothing wrong with going for a ride in the back of a police car and understanding what you did is wrong,” Sheriff Mike Chitwood told VICE News.
Volusia County’s zero-tolerance policy is emblematic of the law-and-order approach Florida has adopted to prevent school shootings. The Republican-controlled legislature received extensive media coverage for its willingness to enact gun control measures after the mass shootings at Parkland. But the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act included many more provisions, including a mandate to have an armed guard in every school.
Juvenile justice advocates have criticized the bill for emphasizing physical security at the expense of mental health. The ACLU of Florida points out that the state allocates more than twice as much money per student for security than than it does for mental health.
