US Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas has submitted a bill, co-sponsored by several federal lawmakers including fellow Kansas Senator Jerry Moran, that would move COVID-19 relief dollars into “hardening” schools against attacks like the one that killed 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas over two weeks ago.
Marshall’s bill, the Safe Schools Act, would let schools use Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER, funding to buy locks, panic buttons, individual room security systems and video surveillance equipment if passed. It also would set aside funding to help pay salaries of armed school resource officers –and it would exempt school security expenses from current ESSER guidelines that require purchases to be repaid.
The bill does not address potential items such as background checks or higher age limits for so-called assault weapons. It also does not address funding for mental health, a stated concern by Republicans at both the state and federal level when it comes to ongoing gun-related violence in America.
