NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Legislation that would require schools to determine the cause of a fire alarm before ordering children to leave a classroom was advanced unanimously by the Tennessee House on Thursday.
The proposal is in response to a shooting at an elementary school in Nashville, in which a gunman killed six people, including three children, last year.
Smoke from the gunman’s weapon triggered the school’s fire alarm, but some students and teachers didn’t know what was happening when they heard it. This confusion ultimately led to the death of third-grader William Kinney, who was assigned as line leader for his class that day and was the first to collide with the gunman in a hallway while helping students out of the classroom.
So far, the Republican-dominated Legislature has rejected calls to enforce stricter gun control measures in response to the shooting. Instead, they have chosen to focus on improving school safety resources, including reevaluating protocols around fire alarms.
The House authorized an earlier attempt last year during a brief special session that Republican Governor Bill Lee called in the wake of the tragedy at The Covenant School, but the Senate refused to consider the bill.
Under the legislation, all public and private schools would be required to develop a policy that instructs school personnel on how to respond to a fire alarm activated as a result of an active shooter. These plans must be ready to be implemented before July 1.
Democratic Rep. Justin Pearson called the legislation “ineffective” in addressing the reasons behind school shootings. The Memphis lawmaker added that while he supported the proposal, he criticized his Republican colleagues for refusing to look at gun control measures.
“It was smoke from an AR-15 that caused the fire alarm to go off at this school,” Pearson said. “So I want to make sure we continue to focus on that.”
House Majority Leader William Lamberth said he was committed to exploring other ideas to improve school safety.
“Let’s as a body pass this legislation, but let’s work for more legislation that prevents gun violence in our state,” the Republican said.
As members of the House of Representatives debated the bill, families whose children survived the shooting at The Covenant School stood in the front row of the public gallery. After the bill passed, they burst into applause.
The proposal must now win approval from the Senate, where Republican leaders say they expect the bill to pass.
The three children killed in the shooting were Kinney, Evelyn Dieckhaus and Hallie Scruggs, all 9 years old. The three adults were Katherine Koonce, 60, the school’s principal; custodian Mike Hill, 61; and substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61.