FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Kentucky lawmakers are one step closer to requiring that all police officers carry weapons when assigned to schools.
The mandate won approval from a House committee on Tuesday, putting it one vote away from clearing the legislature. It’s part of a broader measure that passed the Senate on a 34-1 vote late last month, so if it clears the House unamended, it will go to Gov. Andy Beshear.
The bill was approved by the House Education Committee by a wide margin after opposition from some urban lawmakers, who said the decision on arming school-based officers should be left to each local school district.
“The fact that the state is telling our local school districts that they have no choice, I think it’s a huge problem,” said Democratic Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, one of the Louisville lawmakers to vote against the bill. “The idea of inserting more guns is going to give our teachers and our students a real false sense of security.”
The issue has sparked debate in the state’s largest school district. In Jefferson County, which includes Louisville, the local school board has been divided over whether to arm officers while crafting plans for a district-managed police force.
But Republican Rep. Travis Brenda countered that it’s “critically important” to arm those officers, noting that many schools are located many minutes from police departments in the event of an emergency.
“If a worst-case scenario were to happen, would you not want that police officer to have a firearm?” said Republican Sen. Max Wise, who sponsored the bill. “Can you imagine having to tell a parent that law enforcement officer was not able to respond as he would?”
The bill - now headed to the full House - is a follow-up to last year’s sweeping school safety law, which did not specify whether school police officers needed to carry a weapon.
The bill’s efforts to bolster school counseling also continued to win widespread support Tuesday. The measures are in response to the 2018 shooting at Marshall County High School in western Kentucky, where two 15-year-old students, Bailey Holt and Preston Cope, were killed and more than a dozen others were injured.
Last year’s law was intended to boost police protection and counseling and increase physical security of school campuses, but came with no money. Lawmakers put off funding decisions until considering a new state budget this year. Beshear’s recent budget proposal to lawmakers includes $18.2 million in bond funding to finance safety upgrades at schools.
The safety law also set the goal of having at least one counselor for every 250 students. The new legislation would widen the scope to include social workers as well as school-based psychologists. Even so, reaching that goal would require much more state funding. One estimate put the price tag for implementing last year’s law at $121 million.
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The legislation is Senate Bill 8.
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