The House Education Committee approved a school safety measure Tuesday that requires school districts to have armed school resource officers.
Senate Bill 8 was described as a revision to last year’s Senate Bill 1, the “School Safety and Resiliency Act,” which was signed into law by then Gov. Matt Bevin. Senate Bill 8 is sponsored by Sen. Max Wise, a Campbellsville Republican. Wise’s bill has already been approved by the full Senate.
Senate Bill 1 called for schools to work with law enforcement agencies to “assign one or more certified school resource officers to each school within a school district as funds and qualified personnel become available.” The bill did not specifically require school resource officers to be armed.
Wise’s Senate Bill 8 says: “Each school resource officer shall be armed with a firearm, notwithstanding any provision of local board policy” or agreement. Wise said a survey of Jefferson County Public Schools teachers found teachers were in favor of having armed SROs.
“We did not go down the path last session of arming teachers,” Wise said Tuesday. “We did not go down the path of arming volunteers.”
Instead of having a goal of one SRO per school, Wise’s bill says schools should work toward having one SRO per campus, as funds become available.
The bill also changes the language regarding school counselors so schools can have one counselor or “school-based mental health services provider” for every 250 students, and provides possible exemptions to a requirement that school doors remain closed and locked at all times.
Much of the discussion centered on requiring armed SROs, with some committee members saying they support the measure while others saying the presence of an armed officer could make some students feel unsafe.
Rep. Ed Massey, a Hebron Republican, said Boone County schools looked at arming teachers but went with SROs. He said the resource officer program “has been nothing but superb.”
I’d rather have someone that’s trained (as a law enforcement officer) … than someone who has taken a small firearms class,” Massey said.
Rep. Tina Bojanowski, a Louisville Democrat, said she had concerns with the law overriding school board policies and requiring armed resource officers.
“I’m struggling with that because I hear from people on both sides,” Bojanowski said. While an SRO makes some students feel secure, “there’s another community that is definitely feeling unsafe … they feel their kids would be more targeted.”
When asked about the requirement, Wise said, “If we are going to say these schools are safe and you’re going to have sworn law enforcement officers, they have to be able to do their job.” Later, he said. “If we are going to have sworn law enforcement officers in schools, I think (there is) the expectation they don’t have a slingshot, they have a firearm.”
Rep. Lisa Willner, a Louisville Democrat, said she has heard concerns that requiring armed SROs is “going to make many students feel less of a sense of belonging.” She said she voted for Senate Bill 1 last year, “but I felt comfortable school districts would have the opportunity to make those decisions on the school board level.”
Rep. Travis Brenda, a Centersville Republican, said the average duration of a school shooting incident is six minutes. The 2018 school shooting at a Parkland, Florida, school lasted about six minutes from the time the alleged shooter, Nikolas Cruz, entered the school until the time he fled. He was arrested later that day.
“In my district, there are several schools more than six minutes away from the local police department,” Brenda said. It was important, he said, that resource officers “have the tools they need.”
Keturah Herron, field organizer for the American Civil Liberties Union, said having SROs in schools increases the probability that students will be charged with offenses and referred to the criminal justice system, and students with disabilities are twice as likely to be arrested if an SRO is at the school.
Herron said there have been “a number of incidents where unarmed black youth” have been “murdered” by police.
“In a significant number of schools where shootings occurred, an armed officer was on campus and did not end the incident,” she said.
Herron said lawmakers should “also require school resource officers wear body cameras,” and such a requirement would protect students the SROs.
The bill was approved by committee although a few members voted no or passed on the vote.
Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, a Louisville Democrat, said there have been incidents of “police shootings of people of color (who were) maybe reaching for their wallet, or maybe (the officer was) just scared of the person they pulled over.”
“I’m scared of a child reaching for a pencil and being shot by mistake,” Marzian said.
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Written by James Mayse. Cross-posted from the
Messenger-Inquirer via the Kentucky Press News Service.