Advocacy groups and everyday Georgians appeared before a Senate subcommittee Monday afternoon to comment on House Bill 268. While supporters said it would protect students and teachers and prevent school shootings, critics said it would violate student privacy.
House Bill 268 would allow minors who make terroristic threats to be convicted of a felony crime. It would also require more mental and behavioral health training for teachers and students around Georgia. One of the bill’s other goals caused controversy at the meeting—the creation of a database of students who make threats.
The bill was sponsored by Representative Holt Persinger, Republican of Winder, and co-sponsored by Representative Houston Gaines, Republican of Athens.
Persinger represents the district where a deadly school shooting occurred last year. He explained the intent of the database during the meeting.
“Like in the case of Apalachee, if that student transfers, there would be a way for that system, if they see that student record and there’s a lot of concerns there, they could check with the S3 database to see what’s going on with that student.”
However, several organizations and private citizens disapproved of some elements of the database.
Mikayla Arciaga represented the Intercultural Research Development Association. She said her organization worries the bill would cast too wide of a net, and that law enforcement agencies would have access to data they could misuse.
“We would recommend a little more intentionality around this aspect. We have seen unfortunately incidences where law enforcement was not limited in the access they had and took advantage of that. We would encourage that there be some form of process for outside agencies to be able to access these records if it is not in pursuit of a credible threat.”
The Senate and House will need to vote on a revised version of the bill by the last day of the legislative session, which is April 4th, for the bill to pass to the Governor’s desk.
