FRANKFORT –A bill to enhance major school safety legislation that passed into law last year has advanced to the state House of Representatives.
The measure, known as Senate Bill 8, would require school resource officers (SROs) to be armed.
Marshall County School District Superintendent Trent Lovett said the county’s SROs already carry weapons and did so prior to the 2018 shooting at Marshall County High School.
“I am not sure what a non-carrying resource officer would do should a school shooting break out. I think it is important they are allowed to carry. These are trained officers that must go through continuous weapon training.” said Lovett.
The Marshall County School District employs eight SROs, three at Marshall County High School, one at South Marshall Middle School, one at North Marshall Middle School, one who divides time between South Marshall Elementary and Jonathan, one who works at both Sharpe and Calvert and one at Benton and Calvert elementary schools. All are weapons-carrying officers.
SB 8 adds to the 2019 School Safety and Resiliency Act, initiated due to the Marshall County High School shooting. Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Paducah, expressed his appreciation for SB 8.
“We owe it to our children to give our SROs every tool they need to do their job,” said Carroll, a retired police officer.
“If we are protected by those who are sworn law enforcement officers with a firearm, would we not want the same for our children in Kentucky public schools?” sponsor Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, said in reference to the state police who provide security for the General Assembly. “It is easy for us here to get caught up in discussions that center around guns … but to not allow a sworn law enforcement officer the ability to carry a gun is limiting. They need to be equipped to be able to do their job.”
Additional safety measures would clarify the definition of a SRO to allow a school superintendent to specify any individual to serve as a district’s school safety coordinator, which school facilities are required to have SROs, who produces an active shooter training video and when classroom doors can be left unlocked.
Wise said SB 8 balances provisions that would harden schools – a reference to investments in physical safety measures such as reinforced doors and the armed SROs – with provisions that address the mental health of students. The mental health provisions of the bill specify that the goal is to have at least one school counselor per public school and to have at least one school counselor, or school-based mental health services provider, for every 250 students.
Lovett said funding of the measures addressed in the Bill is a major concern for school districts across the state. But, Wise said the bill does not address funding.
“We are still going to have to address that this session,” Wise said. “There are a lot of goals here. I call upon this body and the body down the hall that we will continue to make this a priority as we go forward this legislative session.”
SB 8 passed the Senate by a 34-1 vote.