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Armed guardians ready to go in Lake County

LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — Training is just about complete for two dozen armed guardians who will help protect Lake County schools.

The district doesn't plan on revealing which schools the guardians will protect, but said it will likely be elementary schools where there are less resource officers.

Each new guardian will report to work with a protective vest and a handgun, but students and staff won't even notice.

“The concept of the program is to keep them anonymous,” said Lt. Michael Bond of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

Read: Sheriff apologizes for accidentally leaving gun at school

Training for the two dozen armed guardians will wrap up Thursday.

The participants have spent the last few weeks firing on a range, practicing defense moves in a facility and learning in a classroom, all under Bond’s watch.

“We feel real confident that the people we've trained are able to go to schools and perform the duties they're assigned to,” Bond said.

The controversial program to allow some staffers to be armed was approved after the Parkland school shooting in February.

Lake County deputies said 27 people started the training last month and 24 will complete the program. Nine are administrators, seven are guards hired to protect schools and eight will work with charter schools.

“Any of the schools where we did not have the availability to place a school resource officer are those schools that we have placed guardians,” said Jimmer Roy, the security specialist of the Lake County schools.

Roy said the district won't be revealing which schools will have the guardians. That's also the case for armed administrators, who will soon take school safety into their own hands.

Each guardian will carry a handgun on them during the entire school day.

Equipment is arriving this week and the guardians should be ready to go by the first day of school.

Michael Lopardi

Michael Lopardi

Michael Lopardi joined Eyewitness News as a general assignment reporter in April 2015.