Republican lawmaker’s bill would make armed resource officers mandatory for Kentucky schools
LOUISVILLE, Ky. Sept 7 2021
The fear of the unknown has been growing in Jeffersontown High School’s early childhood education teacher Jamie Owen. She knows she enjoys seeing her students’ faces every day, but what she doesn’t know is how safe they are.
“J-Town High School is very open to the community, we have lots of entry points,” said Owen. “You really probably don’t know if people are bringing guns into the school.”
It’s the reason why she’s pushing to have an armed school resource officer on campus, something the JCPS school district currently doesn’t require. Luckily for her, a solution could be around the corner, in the form of state law.
“We’ve had two bills from Frankfort, state laws, that have said every campus in Kentucky must have an SRO (school resource officer) armed,” said State Rep. Kevin Bratcher (R). “JCPS just refuses to do it.”
Bratcher, along with two other Republican state representatives, is working on a bill, that would make it mandatory to have SRO’s on every single public school campus. The pre-filed bill also removes a clause in the previously passed Safety and Resilience Act that exempts school districts from having an SRO if they can’t afford it.
“In this day and age, and it’s sad to say, things can happen and it can get out of control,” said Bratcher. “You want somebody right there to take care of it, not waiting 5, 10, 15 or even 30 minutes for somebody to show up. There’s people’s lives at stake.”
He said he’s already garnered plenty of support for it. However, not everyone in the district is on board.
“There are times we’ve had police officers in buildings, and the students have not felt safe,” said JCPS board member Corrie Shull. “I’m not sure what he (Bratcher) expects to happen by having armed security in schools, other than putting another firearm in our schools and putting our students in more danger.”
Shull said the district has in-school security monitors that already patrol campuses.
“They are trained in de-escalation tactics, they are trained in responding to various types of traumas,” said Shull. “We want to ensure all of our students are safe.”
Shull went on to say by adding an armed officer into the mix it may in fact negatively impact some students and staff, who come from community’s where officer community relations are already strained. However, Owen said it could do the opposite.
“When we had an SRO in the building students did look to them for guidance,” said Owen. “It’s good for the community to have that person in our building, bridging the gap between the public and law enforcement.”
The bill is expected to hit the state’s congressional floor for debate in January. If it’s passed, by Aug. 1, 2022, all public schools in the state will be required to have an SRO on campus.
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