A bill to allow non-law enforcement armed “guardians” to secure Kentucky schools, aimed at filling gaps where school resources officers are lacking, advanced in a House committee Tuesday.
Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, characterizes Senate Bill 2 as a realistic means of boosting school security in an age of mass shootings. The goal isn’t to replace School Resource Officers, or SROs, he has said, but to allow districts who can’t afford or fill those positions an intermediary option as a “stop-gap measure.”
The bill also aims to address mental health issues in schools via data collection, suicide prevention and teams of licensed providers to deploy a “trauma-informed” approach deployed by a team of professionals — a key portion of the bill Republicans amended in Tuesday’s House Education Committee meeting.
Sign up for our Bluegrass Politics Newsletter
A must-read newsletter for political junkies across the Bluegrass State with reporting and analysis from the Lexington Herald-Leader. Never miss a story! Sign up for our Bluegrass Politics newsletter to connect with our reporting team and get behind-the-scenes insights, plus previews of the biggest stories.
Kentucky schools are required to have armed SROs on each campus, and typically, they are members of the local police or sheriff’s department. Wise has said previously that 600 school campuses currently do not have the resource officers because of financial constraints.
Under SB 2, districts would be able to contract individuals with certain combat or military backgrounds to carry concealed weapons on school campuses as a means of protecting students and staff.
Wise’s bill is an extension of his Senate Bill 1, the School Safety and Resiliency Act, passed into law in 2019 after the Marshall County High School shooting that killed two students.
Guardians under Wise’s bill would be required to take an annual “firearm proficiency” test, an active shooter response training course from the Department of Criminal Justice and as well as a resource officer training course.
Each district would choose how and whether to fund these positions. Examples of who could serve as guardians, according to the bill, including “honorably discharged veterans, retired Kentucky state troopers, retired law enforcement officers and former federal agents.”
Senator Stephen West, R-Paris, said on the Senate floor last month he sees support for SB 2 as binary: “In a perfect world, we would have highly trained officers in every school. Would I rather have a trained, armed veteran on site ready to act? Or, would I rather have a highly trained SRO or law enforcement officer minutes away? That’s the choice we have.”
Another key provision of the bill, which garnered most of Tuesday’s discussion, asks schools to create a comprehensive mental health “trauma-informed team,” which would include licensed counselors, school administrators, social workers, community-based mental health providers and school nurses to support students using a “trauma-informed approach.”
That group, in addition to supporting students, would compile annual mental health data to provide to the Kentucky Department of Education.
But an amendment introduced by Rep. Josh Calloway, R-Irvington, added “pastoral counselor” to have the same meaning in the bill as “licensed” counselors. His amendment would also allow pastoral counselors to be members of district’s comprehensive trauma-informed teams, should a district allow it.
“How do we make society safer, rather than just hardening up?” Calloway asked committee members, adding that broadening the bill language to include pastoral counselors “gives parents options.”
“We are constantly dealing with not having enough counselors,” he said. By allowing pastoral counselors, “it gives us more people in the pool to choose from.”
Wise said he had “no qualms” with Calloway’s amendment. “We live in a day and time where we’ve got young people who need assistance and help, and I think the more offerings we can provide” the better.
But some committee members, mostly Democrats, bristled at the last-minute amendment. They argued the licensing requirements for pastoral counselors are unclear, as is their qualification to serve on trauma-informed teams.
Rep. Killian Timoney, R-Lexington, asked whether pastoral counselors would be able to “refuse service if they conscientiously object” to, say, offering support to a student with a gender identity or sexuality a pastoral counselor may disagree with.
Calloway didn’t quite answer the question, and instead said his purpose with the amendment is to broaden the scope of support to meet all possible needs.
“This goes back to the team, to help decide what does this child need and what particular issue are they dealing with?” he said. “Not just who is a person, but who is the right person to be able to help with this particular need. It just serves as an option.”
Rep. Tina Bojanowski, D-Louisville, said she found the amendment “very concerning” and asked whether pastoral counselors are trained in trauma-informed care.
“They are trained in all types of care through the requirements they have to have in order to get that certification,” Calloway said.
Calloway’s amendment does not detail what type of training would be required for an individual to qualify as a pastoral counselor — another point some committee members took issue with.
Rep. Josie Raymond, D-Louisville, asked if Calloway had consulted with the Kentucky School Counselors Association, and if so, “How do they feel about it?”
Calloway said he had had “lots of conversations with people in this realm,” including school administrators.
But Abby Piper, a lobbyist with the Kentucky School Counselor Association, testified shortly after that her association was not consulted on the amendment “and certainly don’t support it.”
In a statement following the vote along party lines to support Wise’s bill with Calloway’s amendment, the counselors association said in a statement, “This morning, without (our organization) being consulted or informed, the House Education Committee approved SB 2” — a bill the association had previously endorsed — “that to the best of our knowledge would consider pastoral counselors as school counselors (who) can serve on trauma-informed teams. There is no provision for the denomination of that pastor, their training, (or expertise). There is also no governing body to regulate their practice.”
After an unsuccessful attempt by Democrats and Timoney to table the amendment, the committee voted along party lines to advance it.
Before casting a vote in favor of the amended bill, Rep. Steve Riley, R-Glasgow, said he was “concerned” the last-minute amendment was presented to lawmakers only just before their 8 a.m. meeting, offering little time to understand its impact.
“My father was a Baptist preacher, and he would be really good at this,” Riley said.
But “I’ve met some ministers and I’m not sure they’d be good at this. I am concerned this got dropped on us real fast without us having a chance to process. I think we’ve got more discussions to be had. I’m a yes, but I’m a wishy-washy yes.”
SB 2 with Calloway’s amendment now heads to the full House for a vote.
EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email [email protected] Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel
