ATLANTA — A Georgia lawmaker has introduced a bill that would require all schools across the state to install weapons detection systems.
“A weapon detection system shall, at a minimum, be utilized at all main points of entry to such buildings,” the bill states.
The bill was introduced by State Rep. Chuck Efstration.
“I am used to entering a Georgia courthouse most days, where I pass through security, which includes a weapons detection system,” Efstration said during a House education subcommittee meeting last week, the Georgia Recorder reported. “It’s my opinion that Georgia students deserve similar security when entering Georgia public schools, that includes a weapons detection system.”
Under the bill, the detection systems would “not be required for any point of entry to such buildings that remain locked, are equipped with alarms, and are not intended for student use or are intended for student use only on an emergency basis.”
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Districts would be able to use grants and other funding to help pay for the detection systems, the bill states.
State Rep. David Wilkerson still has questions.
“The grants that we give would only be used for the hardware,” he said. “When you go to an athletic event, you walk through a detection system. It’s a great detection system, but you also see multiple people standing there to screen you when you have a purse, you have a bag, et cetera. This does not contemplate that. It just says, we’ll pay for the hardware, potentially, but we’re not going to pay for what it takes to actually find out what happens when it goes off.”
At the beginning of the legislative season, House Speaker Jon Burns said literacy and school safety were among his legislative priorities this year for the General Assembly.
If passed by the House, the bill will move over to the Senate, where it will have to be passed by April 2, or the bill will die.
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