Ahead of August’s special session wherein Gov. Bill Lee (R) is expected to push for “Order of Protection” (red flag) laws, the governor has signed into law a bill that provides financial resources for school security measures.
Namely, HB 0322 allocates $30 million for the state to hire homeland security agents in each county to serve both public and private schools. The new law also provides $140 million for one full-time, armed school resource officer (SRO) for every public school in the state.
The bill also requires each local law enforcement agency to adopt a comprehensive plan for school safety based on a state-level framework that has been approved by the department of safety, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Tennessee Department of Homeland Security, the department of mental health and substance abuse services, the emergency medical services of the department of health, the state board of education, the Tennessee association of school resource officers and the department of intellectual and developmental disabilities.
According to the bill summary:
Under present law, each LEA must adopt a comprehensive district-wide school safety plan and building-level school safety plans regarding crisis intervention, emergency response and emergency management. The plans must be developed by a district-wide school safety team and a building-level school safety team and must follow the template developed by the state-level safety team. An LEA having only one school building must develop a single building-level school safety plan, which must also fulfill all requirements for development of a district-wide plan.
The new law also adds requirements for active shooter trainings, including “armed intruder drill, conducted in coordination with the appropriate local law enforcement agency, incident command drill without students present to prepare school staff and law enforcement agencies on what to expect in the event of an emergency situation in the school and emergency safety bus drill without students present to prepare school staff and law enforcement agencies on what to expect in the event of an emergency situation on a school bus.”
HB 0322 also mandates that schools must be locked from the inside during school hours.
Lee’s special session to push for more gun control will begin in August.
This new law and Lee’s push for a red flag comes after Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who identified as transgender, shot and killed six people at The Covenant School in Nashville in late March, sparking intense political debate.
Meanwhile, authorities have been slow-rolling the release of what was originally called a manifesto, and later described as “dated journals” by the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD). The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been involved in the investigation into the manifesto, but has consistently deferred to MNPD for information on that front.
Wednesday, The Star News Network sued the FBI over its refusal to release the contents of the manifesto.
“The release of these records is critical to understanding the mind and actions of a mass murderer, and can help form public policy to most effectively protect American citizens,” said Leahy, Editor-in-Chief of The Star News Network and CEO of parent company Star News Digital Media, Inc., headquartered in Nashville.
“We believe the public’s right to know is so important that we are willing to challenge the most powerful law enforcement agency in America.”
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter.
Photo “Bill Lee” by Bill Lee.
