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Osceola County School Board Member Julius Melendez, shown at right at a recent School Board meeting, assembled the Citizens Advisory Group for School Safety. SCREENSHOT FROM OSCEOLA COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD MEETING
There’s no policy guiding the School Resource Officer program in Osceola County, but in the aftermath of the Taylor Bracey case, School Board Member Julius Melendez is working on one.
The Osceola County School District and the three local law enforcement agencies that supply the officers at local schools facilitate the program together through a standard contracting system, but it’s not enough, according to Melendez.
Bracey, a 16-year-old Liberty High School student, was slammed to the ground by Osceola County Sheriff ’s Deputy Ethan Fournier, the school’s SRO, in late January. Videos of the incident went viral. Neither Taylor nor Fournier, who is on paid administrative leave, have returned to Liberty High.
“We’re doing something about it. Nobody can say this School Board does not care,” he said recently at the first meeting of the Citizens Advisory Group for School Safety.
He assembled the group for a comprehensive review of the SRO program after the incident and said he aims to bring a draft policy to the School Board for review.
“As a school board member, I do control the policies and the training and the requirements that staff do to include our SROs while they are on our campus,” he said.
Kissimmee Police Chief Jeff O’Dell said at the meeting that KPD officers are trained on de-escalation techniques and response protocols for people with mental health issues.
“We demand that our officers take a personal interest in the students as well as their activities in the school,” O’Dell said.
Yolanda Rodriguez, from the district’s special needs department, said at the meeting that staff is trained on “what to do when the student is in full crisis without having to put our hands on the student.
“Possibly, if we have to get to that point, there are four restraint techniques that we use. Three of them are standing, where the student never goes to the floor,” she said.
The group is considering training SROs on the same techniques.
Questions about how the program works, and how law enforcement agencies investigate and discipline law enforcement officers have been raised since the incident.
Students and civil right activists want Fournier fired and said Taylor is a victim of police brutality. Fournier’s supporters have said he was only doing his job.
Videos of the incident shot by students and posted on social media have been aired on national and local news outlets. They show Fournier forcing the teen onto the concrete sidewalk facedown, her hitting the ground and her body going limp. Fournier then cuffs her hands behind her back as she lies unconscious. Another unidentified deputy is seen standing next to Fournier amid a cacophony of outcries from students. In one, a boy yells above the crowd: “What’s wrong with you?”
No one is seen rendering aid to Taylor in the footage, and it’s unclear how she got to the school’s administration office, where her mother picked her up later that day.
The Bracey family and their attorneys have said the teen is suffering, both physically and emotionally, from the trauma and that law enforcement officers have requested to interview Taylor regarding possible criminal charges against her related to the incident.
Officials from Liberty High School, near Poinciana, said they would not discipline her and offered to craft a safety plan to help her transition back to school, Taylor’s mother told reporters a few days after the incident. She said her daughter was receiving medical treatment for headaches, blurred vision and depression.
Sheriff Marcos Lopez said Fournier was trying to stop a fight between students and that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the deputy’s use of force on Taylor to remove any law enforcement bias claims against his agency.
Melendez said Lopez declined his invitation to the meeting and that he was told the sheriff would discuss SROs at an upcoming meeting with his agency, the school district and the Kissimmee and St. Cloud police departments.
