RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Some North Carolina legislators on Wednesday recommended mandated training for and more funds toward police officers assigned to school campuses, as well as routine vulnerability reviews for those buildings.
But the House subcommittee examining school and student safety improvements decided further study was needed on ideas to allow non-public schools to have armed security, and on details of how law enforcement could supplement school-based officers with volunteers.
The latest recommendations came after another subcommittee examining mental health and student support needs agreed last week that more school counselors, nurses, social workers and psychologists need to be hired to align with nationally-based standards. That subcommittee didn’t recommend a dollar amount.
Those two panels will convene to approve final recommendations next week, days before the General Assembly convenes its annual work session and would have to vote on any proposed legislation. Republican House Speaker Tim Moore directed the study following the Florida high school shooting in February that left 17 dead. Another legislative panel and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper already have offered their proposals.
“The important thing is we’re actually taking a pro-active response,” said House Majority Leader John Bell of Wayne County after Wednesday’s subcommittee meeting. “We’re actually trying to move forward and preventing these incidents from happening here.”
The bipartisan subcommittee recommended $1.8 million for grants so more school resource officers can be hired in public elementary and middle schools, extending a grant program started in 2013. There were roughly 1,000 officers from local law enforcement agencies working in districts in 2015, the latest numbers available. The state current distributed funds toward officers in high schools.
A school resource officer currently only needs to be a sworn law enforcement officer to take on the job, although most police and sheriff departments send those officers to get the specialized training offered by the North Carolina Justice Academy. The subcommittee wants to mandate that school resource officers complete both initial training and continuing education programs based on state standards.
The subcommittee also wants to require each school district to perform annual assessments on each district building for security weaknesses. The North Carolina Center for Safer Schools would create an assessment tool. Schools already are required to perform annual drills and provide schematic building diagrams to law enforcement.
A 2013 law already allows local governments to use retired officers or military police to provide additional armed protection at schools. But a local sheriff told the subcommittee last month the program couldn’t be implemented until specific statewide standards and training are worked out.
The subcommittee heard from Pitt County District Attorney Kimberly Robb, president of a statewide prosecutors’ group, who asked members to consider raising criminal penalties for people who unlawfully bring guns onto campuses.
District attorneys also want to make it a felony punishable by prison time on a first offense to communicate a threat of mass violence at a school. Currently the penalty for the violation is less than for someone who makes a threat of school violence they know is false. House members wanted more information on Robb’s recommendations, which could be revisited next week.
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