In February 2005, Jessica Lunsford was abducted from her home. Lunsford attended a Homosassa elementary school, the very same school where convicted sex offender John Evander Couey, 46, worked as a mason’s helper.

Although the two never met on the school campus, on the night of Feb. 23, police said Couey abducted Lunsford out of her grandmother’s home while she was sleeping.

Lunsford was sexually assaulted and her body was found on March 19, according to police.

As a result, the Florida Legislature passed the Lunsford Act, a law that requires all visitors on campus to be fingerprinted and screened during the hours while school is in progress.

The act was proposed by state Sen. Nancy Argenziano and signed into law in May by Gov. Jeb Bush.

Last year, a 15-year-old girl was involved in an attempted abduction only 5 miles away from Hillsborough High School. While walking around the neighborhood, the student was approached by a man in car who made inappropriate comments to her.

The girl happened to be in the presence of her dad and uncle, who then tracked down the man and detained him until police arrived.

With the Lunsford Act beginning to be enforced in 2009, the Florida state legislature hopes that future incidents like that of the 15-year-old girl will come to a halt.

Quasar Givens is the assistant principal who oversees school security. When asked whether Hillsborough will be ready for the deadline Givens said, “The program will be run by the Hillsborough County school board. It is through their authority that every school in the county be equipped with these procedures.”

Givens described the screening procedure in detail. “All high school faculties will be required to have their fingerprints taken every three years.”

In addition to the fingerprints, all scheduled vendors to the campus will be required to have their criminal backgrounds checked through the state’s computer database.

“Every contractor and Pepsi man will be required to have their backgrounds checked at designated locations set by the county,” Givens said.

Current systems in place that are similar to the Lunsford Act include the SERVE system, in which all field trip chaperones are screened and fingerprinted.

But with Hillsborough currently populated with a mass of contracted construction workers, is there anything currently being done to screen them?

The school district also is in the process of screening construction personnel working on projects throughout the district.

Many gaps still exist in the program, including the screening of visitors before and after school, but Givens thinks “anything is better than nothing.”