In the aftermath of the horrific Apalachee High School shooting back in September, Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns on Monday, with the family of football coach Richard Aspinwall in attendance, unveiled what he hopes will be a comprehensive school safety plan moving forward in the future.
“The Georgia House is committed to taking strong action to ensure no parent, student or teacher ever has to fear for their safety when they drop their children off at school, go to class or go to work,” Speaker Burns (R-Newington) said in a news conference. “This school safety plan is a comprehensive approach to securing our school buildings, prioritizing the mental health of our children and keeping Georgia’s students safe.”
Burns said he hopes it will lead to the creation of a statewide database that could be accessed for information about students, including mental health issues.
Below are the areas the proposed school safety plan addresses:
- School and Student Safety Database (S3) -- Requires schools to participate in a statewide student information sharing database. Operated by the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, the School and Student Safety Database will be used to collect and integrate data to evaluate the behavior of students who may pose a threat to schools, school staff or students while maintaining the highest standards of student information privacy. The development and implementation of this system will allow for the timely transfer of pertinent student data between school systems, law enforcement and mental healthcare professionals–ensuring that students receive the resources they need no matter where they are in the state.
- Threat Assessment Teams -- Ensures each local school system implements a threat management team consisting of school administration, mental health professionals and law enforcement personnel and provides technical assistance for local school systems to develop policies and procedures for their threat management teams.
- Anonymous Reporting App -- Requires schools to utilize an anonymous reporting app where tips can quickly and efficiently be evaluated and provided to law enforcement and the necessary personnel across the state as needed.
- School Safety Funding -- Builds on prior state investments in school safety resources by providing an additional $50 million for one-time school safety grants for every public school across the state and allocating appropriations for the development of the S3 Database.
- Student Mental Health Resources -- Creates qualified mental health coordinator positions to allow for an individual to be primarily responsible for coordinating efforts to identify and intervene with students who are at risk of mental health concerns. Students will also be required to receive instruction in violence prevention and suicide awareness.
- Increased Penalties for Terroristic Threats -- Implements mandatory suspension for students who make threats until law enforcement and school personnel determine the student is cleared to return to school. This approach balances the immediate need to secure the safety and security of other students with the need to provide discretion to law enforcement and school systems.
- Safe Storage Incentives -- Provides voluntary tax incentives for the purchase of safe storage equipment including firearm safes and trigger locks as well as for gun safety training and courses. This encourages responsible firearm ownership practices while protecting the Second Amendment rights of Georgia’s citizens.
Burns is also hoping some forms of the initiative will be included in the midyear budget amendment, which will be released on Thursday.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2025/2/1284603/speaker-jon-burns-encouraging-the-state-to-adopt-comprehensive-school-safety-plan