by Dave Williams
Capitol Beat News Service
A comprehensive school-safety bill prompted by last year’s school shooting in Barrow County passed the Georgia House of Representatives overwhelmingly Tuesday.
House Bill 268, which cleared the House 159-13, is a top priority for House Speaker Jon Burns. It’s chief sponsor is Rep. Holt Persinger, R-Winder, whose district includes Apalachee High School, where two teachers and two students were shot to death last September.
A student, 14-year-old Colt Gray, was arrested at the scene and has been charged in the murders. His father, Colin Gray, also faces criminal charges for allegedly letting his son possess the AR-15 style rifle used in the killings.
“This legislation
represents an opportunity to save lives and protect our students in every corner of the state,” Persinger told his House colleagues before Tuesday’s vote.
Persinger’s 65-page bill is aimed at filling in communication gaps between schools about at-risk students, particularly when they transfer from one school to another, as Gray did before last September’s mass shooting. It would create a statewide information-sharing database on students considered a potential threat to themselves or others as well as a new app for reporting tips anonymously.
The measure also calls for placing mental-health counselors inside Georgia schools, which the state would pay for. Between the fiscal 2025 mid-year budget that cleared the General Assembly this week and the proposed fiscal 2026 spending plan, the state would spend more than $150 million on safety improvements in the schools, including the mental-health counselors.
The legislation would require schools to form threat-assessment teams that would use technology to detect the presence of firearms before they enter a school building and increase penalties for students who make “terroristic threats.”
“I believe this bill brings common sense to school safety,” Burns, R-Newington, told House lawmakers during a rare appearance in the well of the House. “Our children deserve to be dropped off at school with the assurance they will have a safe environment.”
Some of the bill’s opponents expressed privacy concerns they said a statewide database on students would engender.
“Why are we essentially creating a criminal record for students?” said Rep. Gabriel Sanchez, D-Smyrna. “Do you know what that would do to students trying to better themselves?”
Sanchez also argued enhanced surveillance of students considered potential threats would be used disproportionately on Black and brown students.
Others complained the bill makes no mention of guns or firearms. However, House lawmakers passed a separate bill shortly before voting on the school-safety measure that would offer tax credits to firearm owners who purchase safe storage devices such as trigger locks or gun safes. House Bill 79 passed 165-8.
That bill, too, came in for criticism from Democrats who argued incentivizing safe firearm storage rather than requiring it doesn’t go far enough.
Both bills now move to the state Senate.