Louisville KY January 15 2020

The Jefferson County school district, the largest in the state, is currently crafting its plans for a district-managed police force.

The seven-member board has remained divided over whether to arm officers, with at least three members indicating in December that they had not made up their minds on the issue.

In light of some school police offices remaining unarmed, a new piece of legislation is being submitted that calls for all police officers in Kentucky schools to be armed.

This mandate that, if passed, would supersede the desires of some Jefferson County Board of Education members to keep guns out of schools and makes it unlawful for officers not to be armed.

Senate Bill 8, filed Monday by Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, would amend Kentucky’s 2019 school safety law, which called for a trained resource officer at each of the state’s nearly 1,500 public schools.

Last year’s school safety law did not clarify whether school police needed to carry a weapon.

Wise, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said in an interview Monday that the mandate to arm officers stems from frustration by some lawmakers with JCPS.

“JCPS, the inability of their school board to make some decision, has been very frustrating,” Wise said. “Being the largest school system, that needs to be addressed.”

Wise said he’s had calls from teachers asking, “Why is it not in the legislation that we have armed SROs in school?”

Kentucky’s school safety law was the main priority of the 2019 General Assembly. The law, signed by former Gov. Matt Bevin last spring, requires every Kentucky public school be assigned a resource officer.

But lawmakers have not attached funding to that requirement nor its other provisions, which include providing mental health professionals for students and increasing physical security of school campuses.

Lawmakers have said districts will not be required to meet those mandates until the state provides funding.

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