BHB/5/13
Sponsored by Grady Pazona, Paul Schneider, Abdulaziz Alkayyali of Brentwood High School
This legislation was filed in the Human Services category
Presented as part of the YIG Volunteer 2024 conference
| 1 | BE IT ENACTED BY THE TENNESSEE YMCA YOUTH IN GOVERNMENT |
| 2 | |
| 3 | Section 1: Terms in this act will be defined as follows: |
| 4 | School Building - Any structure in which students and faculty use for the purpose of education. |
| 5 | SRO - (School Resource Officers) sworn law enforcement officers responsible for the safety and |
| 6 | crime prevention in schools |
| 7 | School Crime - Any illegal or harmful actions done to students, faculty, or school property. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | Section 2: According to the Tennessee Bureau of School Investigations, there has been a 96.05% |
| 10 | increase in violent school crimes in Tennessee from 2020 to 2021, with the amounts for firearms |
| 11 | from 71 to 162. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | Section 3: More recently, Tennessee schools saw more than 2,000 violent or potentially violent |
| 14 | incidents, some include weapons on campus. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Section 4: Of the 1,876 schools across the state, only 1,301 had a school resource officer, |
| 17 | according to the data the organization cites. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | Section 5: According to a count by the K-12 School Shooting Database, The number of U.S. school |
| 20 | shootings in 2023 surpassed last year’s record-breaking number of 305 school shootings as of |
| 21 | November 2023. The number of incidents this year has reached 306 — yet another record high for |
| 22 | the third consecutive year. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | Section 6: This act seeks to put a stop to this issue by requiring all High Schools in Tennessee to |
| 25 | have at least one active SRO on campus during the school day. These officers will receive |
| 26 | specialized SRO training through local police departments. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | Section 7: The addition of a mandatory SRO will cost $28,750,000 per year and will be funded by |
| 29 | the State of Tennessee. |
| 30 | |
| 31 | Section 8: All laws or parts of laws in conflict with this are hereby repealed. |
| 32 | |
| 33 | Section 9: This act shall take effect May 30, 2024. |
| 34 |