Legislation aimed at improving last year’s school safety bill, including allowing police officers assigned to schools to be armed, advanced through a senate committee on Thursday.
Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, the sponsor of the bill, said over the past year he has listened to stakeholders and people across the state to come up with changes to the original School Safety Resiliency Act.
One of those changes is arming the school resource officers if they are part of law enforcement.
“We did not go down the path last session of arming teachers,” he said. “We did not go down the path of arming former military or volunteers who wish to be school resource officers. But we feel the language needs to stay that a sworn law enforcement officer, who is within school walls, will be armed with a firearm.
“I think government has a responsibility of public safety, and I think it is only common sense that we take this approach.”
In his appearance before the Senate Education Committee, Wise said the original measure touched on four areas: personnel, systems and structures, a culture of student connection and accountability.
Another change is in the personnel area with the addition of a school safety coordinator for each district.
“This person will be appointed by the superintendent, but not be required to be an administrator,” Wise said. “We found there are various other people in the school district that weren’t administrators that maybe had a background in school safety, so we made this change.”
Another personnel aspect is School Resource Officers.
“We clarified the need for at least one SRO per defined campus, rather than a school,” Wise said. “We have some schools that are underneath one building such as Berea Community school. So we wanted to make that language defined so it would change the word to campus.”
The bill would also make SROs, like other law enforcement officers, in line for death benefits if they die in the line of duty.
Wise says they made a change that, in addition to school counselors, there will be a mental health professional employed by the school district, either fulltime or as a contract employee, for every 250 students.
When asked by reporters how much these changes and others involving building security would cost, Wise said it’s currently unknown.
“It’s going to have to be the commitment of both the House and Senate Appropriations and Revenue Chairmen to decide. We’re going to look forward to see what the Governor’s budget proposal is going to be as it relates to school safety.”
The bill passed the committee on a 12-0 vote, and now heads to the senate floor.
The action comes on the second anniversary of the shooting at Marshall County High School that killed two students and injured around 20 more, which provided the impetus for the original bill.
By Tom Latek, Kentucky Today
