State lawmakers make final push for stronger school safety legislation

Small group of legislators urge leaders to take up critical safety bill in final days of session

OLYMPIA – State lawmakers are pointing to the recent murder-suicide at the University of Washington and yesterday’s tragedy at Virginia Tech University as evidence of the necessity for school safety legislation that is suffering an uncertain fate during the final week of the legislative session.

Early in the session, Senator Phil Rockefeller (D-Bainbridge Island) introduced a bill that would ramp up school safety by requiring schools to adopt and implement a safe school plan. Highlights of SB 5097 include:

• Preparing students and teachers for an emergency by updating the variety of monthly safety drills conducted during the school year to include not only evacuation drills but lock-down and shelter-in-place drills.
• Encouraging school districts to apply for federal emergency response and crisis management grants.
• Giving first responders the information they need to quickly respond to threats. This can be done by regular updating and use of “school mapping” data being collected in all districts. The data allows first responders to pull up a range of detailed information on a school including escape routes, shut-off valves, and points of entry.
• Creating a new grant program for the development and updating of comprehensive safe plans, school safety training, and safety-related drills. This includes funding to begin implementing instant alert technology that allows for communication among buildings on a campus. Rogers High School in Puyallup currently offers a demonstration of this technology.
• Establishing a task force on gangs in schools.

“If there’s one place our children should feel safe, it’s in our schools,” commented Rockefeller who has led the charge for school safety legislation in the Senate. “This legislation needs to be acted on today. We can’t, in good conscience, wait for tragedies like the Virginia Tech Massacre or Columbine to occur in our own schools and on our campuses before deciding to act.”

John Lovick (D- Everett), a former sergeant for the Washington State Patrol and member of the Washington Safe School Advisory Committee, has been working to convince his House colleagues to adopt similar legislation. He says the opportunity to use new technology to improve coordination with local emergency responders is critical.

“Anything we can do to improve coordination between campuses, schools and first responders will save lives,” said Lovick. “We have the technology to do this, now we just need the political will to set the framework and provide the funding.”

SB 5097 passed the Senate 47-0, but awaits action by the House Appropriations Committee, as does the companion House bill sponsored Representative Dave Quall (D- Mount Vernon) and Lovick.

“The countdown is on. We must make the safety of our children and our students a top priority this session,” says Rockefeller. “I strongly urge House leaders to move this bill forward before we go back home. I don’t want to tell families in my district that we failed to keep our children as safe as we could.”

The final day of session is no later than April 22.

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