US Florida's governor signs bill allowing more armed teachers

Florida: Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill that will allow more classroom teachers to carry guns in school, a response to last year's mass shooting at a Parkland high school.

DeSantis signed the bill in private Wednesday and issued no statement. It was one of the more contentious bills of a legislative session that ended Saturday.

The measure expands an existing school "guardian" program and allows any teacher to volunteer to carry a weapon if their local school district approves.

Volunteers must undergo police-style training and a psychiatric evaluation.

Under current law, only teachers who also have another role such as sports coach are eligible to carry weapons on campus.

The bill makes other changes to a school safety law enacted after 17 people were killed in February 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Recently, the three students who disarmed a gunman in a Colorado school shooting leapt up from their desks without a word and with no thought for their own safety when they spotted the gun, recounted one of the young men.

They slammed the teenager, a classmate of theirs, against the wall and struggled with him when shots rang out. Kendrick Castillo, who led the charge, slumped to the ground.

His close friend, Brendan Bialy, wrestled the gun away and called out to Castillo.

There was no response, Bialy told a roomful of reporters on Wednesday as he recalled what happened the previous day at STEM School Highlands Ranch.

"Kendrick went out as a hero," Bialy said. "He was a foot away from the shooter and instead of running the opposite direction he ran toward it."

Authorities said the actions of Castillo, Bialy and Joshua Jones minimised the bloodshed from Tuesday's attack at the school south of Denver that wounded eight students along with killing the 18-year-old Castillo.

The injured includes Jones, who was shot twice, according to a statement released by his family.

Bialy acknowledged that he was scared, but he said he wasn't going to cower for shooters he repeatedly called cowards.

"They lost," he said of the shooters. "They completely and utterly lost to good people." The attackers were identified by law enforcement officials as 18-year-old Devon Erickson and a 16-year-old who prosecutors identified as Maya McKinney but whose attorney said uses male pronouns and the name Alec.