While many parents are critical about what is being taught to their children in schools, their main concern will always be their safety. Over the last few years, schools have played victim to numerous mass shootings. It wasn’t that long ago that the town of Uvalde, Texas, sadly buried 19 children and two teachers after a gunman entered the Robb Elementary School. With schools enforcing new protocols to protect children, in Jacksonville, Florida, a school police officer reacted without hesitation when a man wielding an ax tried to enter an elementary school.

**Let’s Connect! Join Our Community**

On Friday, the Ruth N. Upson Elementary School went into full lockdown when they received reports of a man brandishing an ax while walking toward the entrance. The Duval County School Police Department Chief, Greg Burton, told reporters, “Police officers from the Duval County School Police Department were on the way. As the subject then left the school, he made his way toward a church, where he was then encountered by the police officers. As the subject came towards one of the police officers, the officers gave him verbal warnings to drop the ax, kept giving him verbal warnings to drop the ax.”

Close

After the suspect refused to drop the weapon, he started to threaten the officer, which caused his service weapon to be discharged. Currently, the man is considered to be in critical condition. According to Fox News, “Families received two notifications regarding the incident as it occurred: The first message informed families that the school initiated its lockdown procedures due to a ‘suspicious person allegedly carrying an axe outside of the school,’ but that all students and staff were safe. The second message informed parents that the school had “lifted the code red for dismissal.”

With the school and officers reacting accordingly, Mayor Lenny Curry expressed his gratitude for keeping the children safe. He tweeted he was “grateful everyone at the school is safe and headed home with their families.”

Online users discussed the situation, writing, “87,000 new armed school security officers instead of armed IRS officers. Spend money protecting our children instead of spending billions on harassing and sending a message of intimidation to the American People. But that’s too much for Biden.”

Another person added, “I commend the safety personnel for staying with the building after making it secure – off campus, it’s in the police department’s hands. Well done, everyone. Praying for the officer(s) who had to shoot another human being. Know that we appreciate you!”

And one person found the story to be somewhat uplifting, suggesting, “I got to move to Florida. Gov, AG, and law enforcement do their jobs without worrying about woke defund police nonsense. Citizens can express their constitutional rights.”