By Shelby Stewart
Staff Writer
During a special meeting on Feb. 11, Detective Rich Hubble gave a presentation to the Brandon School Board on his safety and security recommendation.
“Before I left, I started working on a project, I was trying to look at any of our weaknesses,” said Hubble. “I don’t believe we’re going to get a shooter in our school, I think we’ve got that pretty much blocked off, God forbid.”
Hubble, who served as the police liaison officer in Brandon schools for two years, had begun researching the school’s weak points before he left the position, working with high school vice principal David Wyatt. His findings were that the weakest point was during bus drop-off and pick-up before and after school.
“What you see, our kids come out in mass, and go to the buses. We’ve got hundreds of kids standing out there, waiting to get on the bus,” he said. “Somebody comes plowing through with their pick-up truck, or whatever their car is, and runs over a bunch of our kids.”
Hubble gave the board a recommendation of large flower pots on the sidewalks at the bus pick-up and drop off areas. The pots he recommended are very heavy, and would stop a car that drove over the sidewalk.

“When the buses are all pulled up there, it’s blocked off, so the buses themselves will be a wall, so you have an opening at one end and an opening at the other end where someone could drive through with their car and run over our kids,” said Hubble. “If you go to any big building, public building, they have their crash pots, or their flower pots. Which, I kind of thought they could be dual purpose, one, they don’t take away from the look of our school district and they’ll think that we just planted flowers, but more importantly, if someone tries to come through with their car and tries to run over our kids, that’s going to slow them down if not stop them.”
The number of pots needed throughout the district would be 24, with 10 at the high school, including two at the back by the cafeteria so a car can’t drive through the windows, four at the middle school, four at Harvey Swanson Elementary, and six at Oakwood Elementary. The board did not make any decisions about the security recommendations but will be investigating the possibility of taking on the project.