MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Weeks after s deadly school shooting in Florida, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced Tuesday that she is creating a school safety council to make recommendations on securing schools.
At a Tuesday news conference, Ivey said the council will seek to make sure that schools have an updated security response plan and training as well as plans for sharing information about potential threats.
Ivey also announced support for legislation allowing schools to use money from a state technology fund on security measures such as purchasing surveillance cameras. Superintendent Ed Richardson said a total of $41 million could be divided among state school systems for technology and security purchases.
Ivey’s announcement came as various gun bills - from allowing teachers to carry guns to restricting sales of AR-15s - appeared to stall in the Alabama Legislature.
The Republican governor declined to take a position on arming teachers, but said she opposed a long-shot proposal introduced in the heavily Republican Alabama Legislature to ban the sale of AR-15s and similar weapons. Ivey, a former school teacher, said the council would vet a proposal to arm teachers.
The governor had previously said there were other ways to provide protection.
Lawmakers introduced various proposals following the Feb. 14 attack in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
State Superintendent Ed Richardson said, in his view, it was not a sound proposal to allow teachers to bring guns into a school.
“How many times does a teacher’s purse get stolen? Multiple times. What if the gun’s in there,” Richardson said. “I don’t think that is where we need to go.”
Ivey said she did not support measures to ban certain types of firearms, such as an AR-15 or similar weapons. She said she did not think banning a type of firearms would “fix the problem.”
“They could use dynamite or anything,” Ivey said.
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