Gov. Bill Lee has proposed millions of dollars for increased school safety and security measures at both public and private schools across the state in the wake of a school shooting that happened at The Covenant School in Nashville last week.

The proposal also includes additional investments for mental health resources in schools.

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“Today is the next step in the steps that we have taken but it is not the last step,” Lee said in a Monday, April 3, press conference announcing the proposed investments. “There is much to do even after today and together we will continue to take those steps.”

The investments that Lee proposed Monday include: 

• $30 million to expand a statewide homeland security network with 122 agents serving students at both public and private schools
• $140 million to establish a school resource officer (SRO) grant fund to place a trained, armed security guard at every public school
• $20 million for public school security upgrades
• $7 million for private school security upgrades
• $8 million for additional school-based behavioral health liaisons across the state

The proposed investments only include funding for SROs at state public schools. House Speaker Cameron Sexton, who also spoke at Monday’s conference, said funding for Tennessee private schools to hire SROs should be considered.

“They [students] should be protected whether they are in private or public school,” he said. 

The proposed investments from Lee come in the wake of a shooting that occurred one week ago at Covenant, a private Christian school in Nashville. Three students and three staff members, including the head of school, who Lee has said was a friend of his wife’s, were killed in the attack.

Lee’s announcement echoes an executive order he signed last year in the wake of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Neither that order nor Monday’s announcement mentioned guns.

Lee also pointed Monday to school safety legislation that he has proposed previously and that’s currently making its way through committees in the state General Assembly.

That bill includes several measures aimed at enhancing school safety, including:

• Enacting a multi-tiered accountability plan to ensure exterior school doors are locked while students are present, with opportunities for corrective action. State and local law enforcement will be authorized to check for unlocked doors.
• Requiring that private security guards are held to a high standard and receive active shooter training prior to being posted at Tennessee schools.
• Requiring every school district to establish threat assessment teams, a nationally recognized best practice to ensure students are connected to support services and behavioral health professionals, when appropriate.
• Requiring every public and private school to develop annual safety plans, which must include a newly required incident command drill for school leaders and law enforcement to prepare for what to expect in various emergencies.

The legislation includes penalties for schools that don’t keep their doors locked during the day, either forcing them when they are caught to hire SROs if they don’t already or withholding state funding until they can show the problem is resolved.

When asked if there would be penalties for schools that opt out of hiring SROs in light of the new proposed funding for them, Lee said that has not yet been discussed but seemed to suggest they could come. He pointed to the penalties levied against schools for not locking their doors during the day.

“I would hope that every parent hopes that their school puts money toward an SRO,” he said.

Lee also was asked about the potential of gun reform legislation in the state and suggested support for a state red flag law. He expressed openness to red-flag laws but didn’t offer specifics.

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“I think that one of the things that we probably all agree on is that a person that is a threat to themselves or to others should not have access to weapons,” he said.

“The term red-flag laws means a lot of things to a lot of people,” he said.

He added that he didn’t know the best way to implement the law but said that it should be done.

Lee also spoke about the many students that have come to the state capitol in recent days to advocate for gun reform. 

“Please don’t let this be the last time you come to the Capitol,” he said.