A bill aimed at boosting safety in Georgia schools and another banning transgender girls from girls’ school sports teams were among a raft of priority education legislation signed into law Monday by Gov. Brian Kemp.
“As the parents of three daughters, (First lady Marty Kemp) and I know just how important it is to keep our children safe and to give them the best possible start in life,” Kemp said. “That’s why I’m proud to sign these bills that will further safeguard our classrooms, both from those with violent intentions and from out-of-touch political agendas.”
As Kemp signed House Bill 268, he was backed by Winder Republican Rep. Holt Persinger, the bill’s sponsor, and other members of the Barrow County community, which includes Apalachee High School. Apalachee High saw Georgia’s deadliest school shooting last year, in which two teachers and two students were killed and another nine were injured.
The bill was crafted as a response to the shooting and contains a number of provisions intended to decrease the likelihood of a similar attack. It requires schools to implement a panic button system that would allow employees to instantly contact authorities in case of an emergency. Apalachee began using a panic button system just a week before the shooting, and some have credited the devices with allowing law enforcement to react quickly enough to prevent more people from being killed.
The bill also requires schools to share data when a student transfers within five school days. The accused teenage shooter at Apalachee had allegedly been interviewed by the FBI in connection with shooting threats at another district more than a year before the attack, but those allegations did not follow him to Barrow County.