LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Lawmakers in Frankfort want to put funding towards school safety in Kentucky.
Tuesday, the Task Force on School and Campus Security met in the state capitol to hold its first meeting during the 2023 Interim Session.
The committee discussed the history of laws related to school safety. In 1998, following the shooting at Heath High School in Paducah, the General Assembly created House Bill 330 — which established the Kentucky Center for School Safety and made data collection possible. In 2019, Senate Bill One, the School Safety and Resiliency Act, passed following the school shooting in Marshall County. This law focused on creating personnel for school safety, such as counselors and security, and put safety systems in place. Senate Bill 8, in 2020, requires school resource officers to be present in schools.
The main focus during Tuesday’s meeting was over 2019’s Senate Bill One. Kentucky Sen. Max Wise, R-District 16, went into detail of the law.
With the state’s largest school district, Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS), set to begin a new school year in three weeks, and other schools beginning next month, safety is top of mind for many parents.
“You want to make sure when you’re dropping them off that you’re able to pick them back up safely,” said Gladys Burton, the parent of a student in Hardin County Schools.
It is Wise’s hope the state will support schools financially to contribute to safety schools in Kentucky.
“We’ve got to get serious about school safety in terms of funding, and not just have everything look good on paper with a piece of legislation,” he said. “I think this is a very bipartisan, even a nonpartisan, issue when we’re talking about protecting our students, the safety and the wellbeing of our teachers, staff.”
State-provided funding is something parents find to be necessary, given the number of mass shootings that have occurred in schools.
“It would be very important to make sure all schools are on equal footing when it comes to that because no children—no child’s life is worth more than an other child’s life,” said Angela Knipp, whose son attends school in Ashland, Kentucky.
The state has funded mental health professionals, and its Office of State School Security Marshall and Kentucky Center for School Safety. In 2021, over $18 million was approved for facility safety upgrades in schools.
The Task Force on School and Campus Security will meet again on Aug. 1. That meeting will include members from the Kentucky Center for School Safety, the state’s School Safety Marshall, and a representative from the Kentucky Department of Education.
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