CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Sen. Affie Ellis took the Senate floor on Monday, Feb. 24 to discuss a topic important to her: school safety and security.
Eight other Wyoming legislators, including Sen. Lynn Hutchings and Rep. Cathy Connolly, are also backing a bill that would require school districts to adopt safety and security policies.
SF 70 would require all of the state’s school board trustees to adopt safety and security policies, including threat assessment procedures. The framework would have to be established by Wyoming Department of Education superintendent Jillian Balow.
Balow would also have to develop resources for school districts to use when creating their policies. These resources would have to include not only the framework Balow established, but also a system to provide technical assistance to school districts developing and implementing the policies.
One portion of the bill is that the policies would be kept confidential, meaning that they wouldn’t be subject to open records requests. Ellis felt this was important to point out, as this would keep anyone posing a threat to the school from finding out what is the safety plan.
The senator noted that SF 70 came from a bill that was brought up during last year’s general session that covered school safety and security. Due to its lengthiness, it ultimately failed in the legislative process.
“(Balow) is supportive of this new legislation,” Ellis told the senators on Monday. “We have worked this bill through every period and comma, so please know that a number of Education Committee members support this bill.”
Ellis stated that the Joint Education Committee spent time on conference calls with school superintendents from around the state, getting their feedback on potential legislation regarding safety and security.
Some legislators, such as Senate President Drew Perkins and Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, expressed concern about the bill requiring a “one-size fits all” safety model.
Ellis clarified that the bill would just require the framework for a safety model, meaning that the school districts would submit a plan that’s compatible with that model.
“We originally had language in the bill that stated safety policies should be ‘consistent’ with the framework, but we ultimately landed on saying the policies should be ‘compatible,'” she explained. “The school districts seemed much more comfortable with that notion.”
Sen. Bill Landen backed Ellis, noting that he enjoyed working on the education committee and with the state superintendents over the last year.
“This is something we need to continue taking seriously every year,” Landen told the Senate during the morning floor session. “I tip my Stetson to the good senator for Laramie County for presenting this bill.”
This article originally appeared on Oil City News. Used with permission.