PA Bill Number: HB829
Title: In preliminary provisions, further providing for definitions;
Description: An Act amending the act of April 12, 1951 (P.L.90, No.21), known as the Liquor Code, in preliminary provisions, further providing for definitions;
Last Action: Signed in House
Last Action Date: Jul 3, 2024
Pennsylvania: Bill allowing armed school security officers passes Pa. Senate :: 06/13/2019
The state Senate’s consideration of a bill intended to address concerns that have arisen over which school security personnel could carry firearms erupted into a debate over the need for any firearms in school.
Sen. Mike Regan, R-York County, makes a case for his bill that clarifies which school security personnel can be armed and requires baseline training for all security personnel.
Following a lengthy debate on Tuesday, the Senate voted 32-17 to pass Senate Bill 621 offered by Sen. Mike Regan, R-York County. The legislation now goes to the House for consideration.
The measure would allow school districts the option to arm school security officers or contracted security guards, which the state Department of Education said was not allowed by Act 44, a school safety and security law that passed last year.
It also would allow sheriffs and deputy sheriffs to serve as school resource officers as was permitted prior to Act 44′s enactment . Additionally, it identifies a baseline training that all armed security personnel, regardless of title, must have.
The southcentral Pennsylvania school districts, Northern York and Big Spring, were among the districts that urged Regan to offer this legislation after finding themselves out of compliance with Act 44 or the education department’s interpretation of it. Northern York wanted its contracted school security officers to be armed. Big Spring wanted to continue using deputy sheriffs as its school resource officers.
“Our schools just want to get back to securing their schools the way they were doing in the way they see fit and Senate Bill 621 allows them to do so,” said Regan, a former federal marshal, in his floor remarks.
But Sen. Larry Farnese, D-Philadelphia, who was among the 17 Democrats who voted against the bill, viewed the bill differently.
“Seems to me that what this bill does is attempt to address a problem with firearms coming into schools by allowing more firearms to come into school,” he said. “To me, that doesn’t seem like the right approach.”
He and others argued that there are better ways to make schools safe such as securing doors, metal detectors, and mental health counselors. Farnese further argued that the baseline training the legislation would require of armed security officers could be insufficient in a “terroristic situation with an armed individual” as has played out in some of the mass school shootings this nation has experienced.
Regan said his bill would require basic school resource officer training for all security personnel. It includes lessons on developing and supporting successful relationships with diverse students, understanding special needs students, violence and victimization as they relate to development, and threat response and preventing violence in a school setting.
This is in addition to the Act 235 lethal weapons training that security personnel possess that trains them in how to carry and use lethal weapons as part of their employment. But Regan said some senators considered that weapons training insufficient for school security guards.
Regan said they would prefer that schools send their security officer or officers through the 900-hour municipal police officer training at a cost of $9,000 a person. Parts of that training would address topics a school security officer would not likely encounter such as traffic law and interpreting the vehicle code, he said.
Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre County, said one thing that all senators can agree on is they want schools to have a safe environment.
“What this bill does ultimately is give options to our school district, our communities to decide how best to provide that security in their school,” he said.
Further, he said Regan’s former service as a federal marshal makes him an expert on the topic of safety and security.
“If he’s going to tell me there’s proper training here and that after this training, that people will be in position to do good with this to hopefully protect the kids in our schools, then that’s good enough for me,” Corman said.
Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.
