COLUMBUS – When violent threats target a school building, it’s difficult, and perhaps impossible, to put a price on student safety.
But as school districts and law-enforcement officers across Ohio spend thousands of dollars investigating hazards and hoaxes, a newly proposed state law could force a student perpetrator’s family to foot the bill.
READ MORE: In The Columbus Dispatch
Senate Bill 297, introduced by Sen. Jim Hughes in March, would allow officers and school administrators to sue a child’s family for costs associated with serious threats. Schools also could mandate mental-health screenings for children who make the threats. Students who refuse an evaluation could be expelled for up to a year.
The Columbus Republican teamed up with Hilliard school officials and police Chief Robert Fisher to craft the bill after a Hilliard student developed an elaborate plot to bring a gun to school in October.
It’s a permissive law, meaning it could provide districts with options but wouldn’t be mandatory.
“We need more options to ensure the safety of our communities and provide a process that will get the necessary help to those that need it,” Fisher said in his April 26 testimony.