Legislation aimed at making schools safer

JACKSON, Tenn. — The governor is taking steps to make sure every student feels safe by signing strong school safety measures into law.

Gov. Bill Lee has signed strong school safety legislation into law, investing more than $230 million to strengthen school safety.

The legislation, according to the Governor’s Office:

• Enacts a multi-tiered accountability plan to ensure exterior doors are locked while students are present
• Requires that private security guards receive active shooter training prior to being posted at schools
• Requires every school district to establish threat assessment teams to ensure students are connected to support services and behavioral health professionals when appropriate
• Requires every public and private school to develop annual safety plans, including a newly required incident command drill for school leaders and law enforcement

The Governor’s Office also broke down the funding:

• $30 million for more than 100 Homeland Security agents across all 95 counties to serve Tennesseans and students in both public and non-public schools
• $140 million for one full-time, armed School Resource Officer (SRO) for every public school
• $40 million for public school security upgrades
• $14 million for private school security upgrades
• $8 million for additional School-Based Behavioral Health Liaisons across the state

“It all starts with a safety plan, and that’s one of the things that Governor Lee signed into law today, that all schools have to have a safety plan. It has to be reviewed and assessed every year, and all of our schools have that it follows the district’s plans,” said Tim Gilmore, with the Safety and Security Department of the Jackson-Madison County School System.

JMCSS has several safety measures already in place, like metal detectors and student resource officers in most schools.

Lee is requiring all school districts have a threat assessment team, which the Jackson-Madison school system already has.

“We implemented our threat assessment team this year, and we will also have each school have one. So we’re getting over 130 JMCSS employees, including our SROs that have been going through the online training, and it will accumulate with the in-person learning,” Gilmore said.

According to the Governor’s Office, $140 million of that $230 million is for one full-time SRO for every public school, and $54 million will go into public and private school security upgrades.

“We’re piloting some apps, some phone apps. That’s allowing us to put all of our pieces together, the reunification in case of a crises, the accountability for children, the alert system of when something happens, getting quicker to our first responders,” Gilmore said.

The new laws will take affect soon. And although the school year is almost over for many, safety continues to be an top priority for state and school leaders.

“We’re always looking and assessing to see how we can get better. But we feel good about the things that the governor has put in place, that we’re ahead of the curve or we’re right there where we need to be at this time with obviously wanting to get better everyday and see what we can do to improve to be safer,” Gilmore said.

You can read the full news release from the Governor’s Office here.

You can find more news from across the state here.