ATLANTA – The Georgia legislature passed a sweeping school safety bill which seeks to identify students who intend to do harm and bolster mental health services for them.
House Bill 268 drew broad bipartisan support in both chambers of the General Assembly passing the Senate 45-9 and then the House of Representatives 15412. The House had already approved the bill by a similar margin in early March but had to ratify Senate changes.
The measure has been a priority for House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington. The 57-page bill is a reaction to the mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County last September, which led to four deaths and murder charges against a student and his father, who was accused of giving his son access to a gun. Nine others were wounded.
“We have to make sure this never happens again in the state of Georgia,” said Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, whose district includes Barrow County.
HB 268 seeks to prevent violence before it happens. It would require schools maintain records on students with troubling behavior, from regularly skipping school to disciplinary infractions and police encounters (police would have to inform the schools when they apprehend their students).
Schools would have five business days to share those records when a student transfers to a different school, as happened at Apalachee High. They would also have to maintain an around-theclock anonymous tip line.
The legislation also calls for more mental health services. Each school system would get up to three state-funded student advocates, one for every 18,000 students. And it would require annual training for teachers and students about recognizing mental health warning signs.
The Senate deleted some provisions which were in the original bill passed by the House.
A mandate for schools to establish threat assessment teams was cut. So was a database that would have served as a repository of information about students who seemed suspicious. One state official said it might contain records on 1% of Georgia’s 1.7 million public school students.
Parents and their advocates feared such data would be inaccurate, prejudicial and stigmatizing — and follow students into adulthood, with potentially harmful consequences.
Cowsert agreed and deleted the provision during the review process in a committee he leads.
“They say and do stupid, irresponsible things,” Cowsert said of teenagers. “Why should we have this shadow database on misconduct of students which didn’t rise to the level of criminal conduct?”
Misconduct rising to the criminal level would be treated sternly under HB 268 through a provision added by the Senate. Children ages 13-17 who commit a terroristic act on campus could be tried in adult courts, with potential prison time and convictions would go on their records for life.
A terroristic act would involve using a weapon, fire, hazardous substance or simulated hazardous substance to terrorize or cause an evacuation.
The legislation also would allow prosecutors to prosecute teens as adults for aggravated assault with a firearm, on or off campus.
That concerned Sen. RaShaun Kemp, D-Atlanta, who noted students in gangs could see their lives “drastically changed” by the new provision.
HB 268 now goes to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature.
