Lawmakers: More school officers, more training would boost school security

The recommendations are expected to go to the full House Select Committee on School Safety next week, and some or all could go before the full legislature later this month.

One proposal calls for an extra $1.8 million in the state budget to provide school districts grants to hire SROs for elementary and middle schools, while a second would require all SROs to undergo standardized training and annual continuing education. Districts also would be required to report every year how many SROs they employ and how the positions are funded.

The recommendations also included required vulnerability assessments on every school building every year and mandating that charter schools conduct annual active shooter drills and work with local law enforcement agencies to come up with risk management plans. As WRAL Investigates has reported, while traditional public schools are already required to conduct annual drills, charter schools are only encouraged to do so.

Private schools would still be encouraged to conduct drills, under the recommendations, but lawmakers want to look more at how to provide armed security for these schools.

"The important thing is we're actually taking a proactive response," said Rep. John Bell, R-Wayne, chairman of the subcommittee. "Most of the time, when you're dealing with issues – you look at the tragedy that happened in Florida, the state legislature had to come and do a reactive approach – where we're actually trying to move forward and prevent one of these incidents from happening here."

Bell's group never discussed the idea of arming teachers, and they decided to take more time to study the concept of arming volunteers as SROs. A law allowing volunteer officers has been on the books in North Carolina since 2013, but it's not being used because it's unclear.

"The criteria's very vague on how to implement that. So, if you want it to work, I think you need to have the sheriffs come in and say what works and what doesn't work so we can streamline the process so they can actually implement it," he said.

The group also delayed voting on a proposal by the state Conference of District Attorneys to increase penalties for students who carry guns onto campus or make threats of mass shootings. Some members said they don't want to hang felony crimes on teens for what many times are pranks or foolish mistakes.

"Science tells us their brains are not well developed until after the age of 25, and we don't want to slap felonies on them before they have even gotten to a fully developed state," said Rep. Susan Fisher, D-Buncombe. "We just need to talk about what is an appropriate punishment."