OKLAHOMA CITY — With just about a month and a half remaining in the 2023 legislative session, two bills, which their authors said were designed to make schools safer, are expected to be heard by the full House of Representatives.
House Bill 100 would require every school district in the state to undergo a risk and vulnerability assessment every five years; a companion measure, Senate Bill 101 would provide startup grants to fund school resource officers for rural and underserved schools.
State Rep. Dick Lowe (R-Amber) and State Sen. Dewayne Pemberton (R-Muskogee) authored both bills.
Lowe said lawmakers needed to move quickly to increase school safety. “Senate Bill 100 would help identify areas of improvement for schools in the event of a threat, and Senate Bill 101 would provide grants to help schools hire school resource officers trained for active shooter emergencies,” Lowe said. “I’m encouraged by the support of these bills and look forward to presenting them both on the House floor soon.”
Both measures come on the heels of a widely publicized ‘swatting’ event that occurred just two weeks ago at the University of Oklahoma. A ‘swatting’ happens when unknown individuals make false emergency calls to public safety authorities in attempt to cause the dispatch of a large number of police officers to a particular address.
On Friday, April 7, OU officials received multiple 911 calls claiming there was an active shooter on the campus near the South Oval and the Bizzell Memorial Library.
Public safety officers were dispatched to the area. At the same time, OU’s RAVE network sent text and email messages to thousands of students, faculty and staff. That message warned recipients there was an active shooter at the Van Vleet Oval and urged people to take immediate action, including running, hiding or to fight.
Subsequent messages told those on campus to shelter in place and avoid the South Oval Area. A follow up message said authorities were “continuing to investigate possible shots fired on the Norman campus.”
An all-clear message was sent at 10:55 p.m.
On April 9, OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. said the university had confirmed it was the target of international swatting incident.
“First, and above all else, we are enormously relieved that the situation turned out to not be a real event and that our community and our campus are safe,” Harroz said.
Harroz said more than 100 police, fire and public safety officers from multiple jurisdictions were dispatched to the area but found no evidence of a shooting.
Federal officials said they believed the calls were made from numbers outside of the U.S.
Four Norman-area legislators, Sen. Mary Boren and Reps. Jacob Rosecrants, Annie Menz and Jared Deck issued a joint statement praising the work of law enforcement.
“As a Norman delegation, we are grateful to our first responders who answered the call and took it seriously,” the statement said. “We are grateful to the alert system that helped our community understand the potential seriousness of the situation.”
The group said they remained resolved to “empower college presidents with the job of making polices to keep their students safe.”
State lawmakers continue to wrestle with school policy issues. Lawmakers have until May 26 to finalize a package of education-related bills that couple pump millions of dollars into the state’s public education system.