Georgia lawmakers agree on school safety bill after Apalachee High School shooting

ATLANTA - Georgia lawmakers gave final approval Monday to a sweeping school safety bill inspired by a deadly shooting at Apalachee High School, sending the measure to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature or veto.

House Bill 268 passed both chambers after months of negotiations and emotional testimony following the Sept. 4 shooting that left two students and two teachers dead in Barrow County.

The backstory:

Lawmakers said the ability to track potential threats between districts was a major priority after it was revealed that law enforcement in neighboring Jackson County had interviewed the accused shooter, Colt Gray, months before the Apalachee tragedy. That information was not shared with Barrow County school officials after Gray skipped eighth grade and enrolled there as a high school freshman.

The bill also requires every Georgia school district to add at least one new position focused on coordinating mental health treatment for students.

What we know:

The legislation includes a broad range of safety measures, including mandatory police reporting to schools when officers learn a child has threatened death or injury, quicker transfer of student records between schools, a statewide anonymous reporting system, and the requirement for public school staff to have wearable panic buttons. Schools would also have to submit electronic maps of their campuses annually to local, state, and federal agencies.

One of the most contentious elements — a proposed student-tracking database managed by the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency (GEMA) — was scaled back after drawing criticism from both Democratic and Republican constituencies.

While the final version drops the broad collection of law enforcement, court, and child welfare records initially proposed, it still instructs GEMA to create a "statewide alert system." That system would flag students who, following an investigation, are found to have threatened or committed violence at school.

GEMA is tasked with establishing rules for when names are added to the alert system and how individuals can seek removal. Authorized school officials across the state would be allowed to access the data.

In a shift toward tougher legal consequences, the bill would make adult prosecution the default for students aged 13 to 16 charged with certain violent crimes at school — including terroristic threats, aggravated assault with a gun, or attempted murder.

What they're saying:

"It’s been a long hard road since Sept. 4," said Rep. Holt Persinger, a Winder Republican who sponsored the bill. "We’ve been working on this almost every single day," he told reporters, holding back tears.

Persinger acknowledged to The Associated Press that "components" of the original database remain in the final bill. "We’ve got to communicate if there’s a threat," he said.

"This wasn’t a ‘we can turn around and run away from this’ bill," said House Education Committee Chairman Chris Erwin, a Republican from Banks County. "This was a must-do bill, and we had to secure our environments for our children."

The other side:

Opponents argued the database could become a permanent blacklist, disproportionately impacting racial and religious minorities and offering no due process.

"If that is your concern with the bill, it has been removed from the bill," said Sen. Bill Cowsert, a Republican from Athens. "There will not be a database kept with GEMA or anybody else. Students still have their school record, but there’s not going to be some amorphous database that can haunt a child, even when they’ve really never acted on their immature comments."

What we don't know:

The funding to implement the alert system remains uncertain. 

What's next:

The House has proposed $25 million in the upcoming fiscal year budget, but the Senate has not agreed to the expenditure. Final decisions on funding will be negotiated in the coming days.

SEE ALSO:

• Father of accused Apalachee High School shooter seeks venue change for trial
• Marietta City Schools votes to add new weapons detection systems
• Georgia House passes sweeping school safety bill after school shooting
• Apalachee High School forms partnership to support students, teachers
• Barrow County Schools announce additional new security feature