Credit: forcal35/Pixabay.com
Pennsylvania schools will be required to notify parents and employees within 24 hours about weapons incidents under a bill that’s passed both chambers of the state legislature.
The Senate nearly unanimously approved Senate Bill 246 Wednesday afternoon. It now awaits Gov. Josh Shapiro’s signature.
State law already requires schools to notify local law enforcement and the commonwealth’s Department of Education.
SB246 adds parents, guardians and school staff and faculty to the list of parties that must be notified “using a method of communication likely to reach” them by public and private schools – including intermediate units and cyber and charter schools.
It applies to “any knife, cutting instrument, cutting tool, nunchaku, firearm, shotgun, rifle and any other tool, instrument or implement capable of inflicting serious bodily injury” brought to campus and/or school sponsored events and transportation.
The identity of the student would not be disclosed in the notification; however, it would be relayed to their teachers and other staff to whom they’re assigned, under the proposal.
Sen. Jarrett Coleman (R-Lehigh), co-sponsor with Philadelphia Democrat Christine Tartaglione, has said a constituent raised the issue after discovering a knife was brought into their child’s school because another parent read about it in a police report.
Democratic Senators Lindsey Williams (Allegheny) and Amanda Cappelletti (Delaware/Montgomery) cast the only votes against the measure Wednesday.
Williams said previously she fears the new rules will “cause parents unnecessary fear and anxiety.”
She spoke about her concerns ahead of the first vote on the bill during a meeting of the Senate Education Committee, of which she’s minority chair.
The measure doesn’t differentiate between a kid taking their parent’s gun to school versus “a student who goes to the office to hand over a pocketknife he left in his backpack from hiking this over the weekend,” she said.
Cappelletti’s office was unable to provide details about her vote.
Some lawmakers also raised concerns with the vague definition of what constitutes a weapon in the original version of the measure.
At one point, the proposal expanded to require alerts about bullying, harassment, incidents involving serious bodily injury and intentional property damage exceeding $1,000. Those provisions came out of the bill before its final passage in the House during the summer with only Rep. Stephanie Borowicz (R-Clinton/Union) opposing it.
Rep. Barb Gleim (R-Cumberland) made an unsuccessful attempt at that time to add another party to notify: the Pennsylvania Information Management System (PIMS). The point, she said, would be to generate better data on weapons in schools and ultimately inform policies and practices to make them safer. It also would’ve tracked effectiveness of and compliance with school safety and security grants, Gleim said.
