On March 14, the House passed, 407 to 10, H.R. 4904, the STOP School Violence Act. Introduced by Representative John Rutherford (FL-R), the bill would authorize $50 million in grant funding for schools to con­duct training to prevent violence, set up anonymous re­porting systems for threats, and implement other safety measures.

Representative Rutherford said,

“The best way to keep our students and teachers safe is to give them to tools and the training to recognize warning signs to prevent violence from ever entering our schools’ grounds … this bill aims to do just that.”

A Senate companion measure, S. 2495, introduced by Senator Orrin Hatch (UT-R), is pending before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which held a March 14 hearing titled “See Something, Say Something: Oversight of the Parkland Shooting and Legislative Proposals to Improve School Safety.” The White House announced that the President would sign the STOP School Violence Act, but the Senate has taken no further action to date.

In other action, Representative Tom Marino (PA-R) has introduced H.R. 5427, the School Safety Act, to re­authorize the COPS in Schools program. That program provided Federal grants for hiring school resources of­ficers (SROs) from 1999 to 2005. SROs are sworn law enforcement officials who provide an enhanced level of safety at schools by making arrests, issuing citations on campus, and responding to unauthorized persons on school property.

The bill would also require schools that receive the grant funding to give preference to military veterans and retired law enforcement officers when hiring SROs.

Representative Marino issued the following state­ment regarding the bill:

“After many tragic school shootings, we must ensure that our schoolchildren are protected in the classroom. My legislation will place some of our Nation’s finest in schools to safeguard students, teachers, and faculty. With tens of thousands of veterans struggling to find employ­ment, Congress has a tremendous opportunity to protect America’s schoolchildren while pro­viding quality jobs to those who have sacrificed for our freedoms. Started in the Clinton Administration, the COPS in Schools program has faced criticism from those who ar­gue that hiring school officers can lead to abuse, espe­cially of minority students.”

The American Civil Liberties Union states:

“Growing numbers of districts employ school re­source officers to patrol school hallways, often with little or no training in working with youth. As a result, children are far more likely to be subject to school-based arrests — the major of which are for nonviolent offenses, such as dis­ruptive behavior — than they were a generation ago. These arrests for minor infractions dispro­portionately target students of color and students with disabilities.”