Two bills sponsored by Rep. Alan Baker (R-Brewton) designed to protect Alabama schoolchildren have passed the state House.
Yesterday, the House passed HB91, which would expand school safety training by requiring drills for active shooters and intruders at least once each semester. Another bill that would toughen penalties for trespassing on a school bus, HB105, gained House support April 11.
HB105 would make this particular crime a class-A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail. Sen. Cam Ward of Alabaster sponsored the Senate version, SB15, which earned a favorable report from the state judiciary committee in February. This measure would make it a crime for an unauthorized adult to board a school bus, vandalize a bus or enter a bus with an intent to cause damage.
Both bills now head to the Senate for further action, The Brewton Standard reported.
“Schools already are required by legislation and by State Department of Education policy to have a comprehensive school safety plan in place to be followed as the need arises,” Baker said earlier this year. “Currently, only an annual school safety drill is required to be performed specifically for a ‘hard’ lockdown prompted by a threat of violence.”
Recalling the recent Dale County murder-kidnapping in which an Alabama bus driver lost his life and a child was taken hostage, Rep. Baker said the legislature should specifically make trespassing on school buses a state felony.
While he introduced the bill before the Dale County incident ended in February, it was renamed the Charles Poland Jr., Act in honor of the school bus driver who died in the line of duty protecting his students.
These bills are part of a package of school safety measures Republican lawmakers unveiled at a news conference Tuesday. One proposal requests that the state allocate more money to hire trained, certified officers to increase school security. Another calls for a bond issue of $50 million for equipment and renovations to secure all school building entrances.
House leaders also requested additional funding for Virtual Alabama, a computer-based program that provides emergency responders with digital maps, building layouts and diagrams of schools and other public settings in the state. In addition, House Minority Leader Craig Ford (D-Gadsden) recommended the state seek more funding to support mental health programs for students.
Sen. Ward pre-filed SB15 in early January in reaction to the Newtown, Conn., school shooting in December perpetrated by a young adult. He had proposed an identical bill last September, yet it died because it was reportedly filed too late to receive final passage.
