TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – With the bill named after one of the victims in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, a Senate panel on Tuesday approved a measure that would require public schools to have a “panic alert” system.
The Senate Education Appropriations Subcommittee moved forward with the proposal (SB 70), sponsored by Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation.
It is named “Alyssa’s Law,” after 14-year-old Alyssa Alhadeff, who was one of 17 people killed in the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting at the Parkland school.
“Test scores will not matter if our children do not come home alive,” said her mother, Lori Alhadeff, who believes that if it had been in effect at the time of the Parkland shooting, her daughter may still be alive. “Absolutely. Lives would have been saved that day. They would have had time to know where to go, to get out of the line of vision on the door. Definitely, on the third floor, lives would have been saved."
The bill would require the mobile alert system to be in every public school starting in the 2021-2022 academic year. It would direct the Department of Education to contract for a statewide system, with supporters saying that school districts would be able to add other technology. The system would be designed to help provide “real-time coordination between multiple first responders” during emergency situations, according to the bill.
“In an active-shooter situation, it’s not seconds that count, it’s nanoseconds,” Book said.
For the last 90 days, a mobile app system has been undergoing tests at schools in the state capital.
“Once they press this app, it marks their location and initiates a 911 call,” explained Chief of Leon County Schools John Hunkiar. “One of the identified failures at Stoneman Douglas, which was the time it took for that information to get through two 911 centers, we would have already initiated a response."
The legislation initially called for panic buttons to be hardwired in every school, but the cost would be $280 million statewide. With the app, it would be $8 million, and it’s the cost reduction that has gotten the legislation back on the fast track.
The House Education Committee is slated Wednesday to consider the House version of the bill (HB 23), sponsored by Rep. Mike Gottlieb, D-Davie, and Rep. Dan Daley, D-Coral Springs.
The Senate bill is expected to go to the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday.