Kentucky House Passes School Safety Bill

In early 2018, tragedy struck Marshall County High School when a shooting incident took the lives of two students. Since then, the Kentucky General Assembly created a bipartisan group to improve school safety.

Lawmakers traveled all over the state to listen to teachers, students, administrators, law enforcement and mental health professionals. The legislation was soon moving ahead.

Senate Bill 1 was passed unanimously on Wednesday in the House 96-3. The bill will now be sent back to the Senate to agree to the changes made in the House before it is sent to the Governor.

Parents of Marshall County High students made statements before the House vote:

The legislation would mandate the creation of a state school security marshal position; funding is not yet available and the total cost is unknown. The bill would establish a goal of providing more school resource officers who are trained in the areas of school safety and security. The bill would also require each school district to appoint a school safety coordinator. He or she would be the primary point of contact and develop policies for emergency response drills.

School district employees who have direct contact with students would receive active shooter response training. The bill has a goal of providing more mental health professionals in schools yet the type of professional, be it a counselor or psychologist is still being debated.

Two other parts of the bill, requiring suicide prevention awareness to be taught in grades 6 through 12. Employees who have direct contact with students would also have to receive suicide prevention training. And the legislation would crack down on outside threats by criminalizing hoaxes fake school violence threats, labeling each as felony second-degree terroristic threatening.

Some of the requirements in the bill would take effect by the start of the next school year while others would take effect by 2020 or later dates.