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Two extra Tennessee college students have died by gunfire at college in a state that has invested a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to fortify campuses — and carried out little to limit gun entry.
Police mentioned a 16-year-old feminine pupil at Nashville’s Antioch Excessive College died after being shot Wednesday within the cafeteria by a 17-year-old male pupil with a handgun, who then shot himself within the head and died. A 3rd pupil was grazed within the arm in the course of the taking pictures.
The taking pictures comes lower than two years after a mass taking pictures at a personal Christian college in Nashville prompted the state’s Republican supermajority to spend money on extra school-based security officers, safety upgrades, and permitting some public college lecturers to hold weapons.
This 12 months’s legislative agenda, headlined by a particular session known as by Republican Gov. Invoice Lee, is dominated by personal college vouchers and enforcement of President Donald Trump’s immigration insurance policies.
Whereas some Democrats on Wednesday signaled a need to take up college security and gun reforms, it was unclear from the preliminary response whether or not Republicans who’ve agency management of state authorities will reply.
The newest taking pictures occurred at roughly 11:09 a.m., prompting a lockdown on the 2,100-student public college within the southeast Nashville neighborhood of Antioch. College students later had been transported by bus to a close-by hospital to reunite with their households.
“It’s impossibly tough to be right here, as soon as once more, coping with the devastation of gun violence in one among our college communities,” Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell mentioned at a information convention outdoors the college campus.
Tennessee has invested closely at school safety
Lee’s administration largely sought to fortify college campuses in response to the 2023 taking pictures by a former pupil that killed three kids and three adults at Nashville’s Covenant College.
The GOP-controlled legislature has rejected efforts by Democrats to tighten the state’s lax gun legal guidelines.
In 2023, lawmakers added $144 million yearly to the state funds to pay for a minimum of one school-based officer for each public college. Tens of hundreds of thousands of extra {dollars} had been invested to assist private and non-private colleges make safety upgrades and bolster collaboration between colleges and state homeland safety brokers.
Lawmakers in 2024 permitted new college hearth alarm protocols to take into consideration active-shooter conditions; a pilot program to offer lecturers wearable alarms; and elevated security coaching for varsity bus drivers, amongst different issues.
Their most contentious debate was over a invoice to let some public college lecturers and workers carry weapons below sure circumstances. In the end, the measure handed simply regardless of dramatic protests on the state Capitol by residents wanting fewer weapons in colleges, no more. Thus far, few Tennessee college techniques, if any, have sought to pursue that choice.
In the meantime, one other 2024 regulation — to severely punish threats of mass college violence — has resulted in kids being kicked out of college and arrested on felony prices, typically due to rumors and misunderstandings. The regulation is being challenged in court docket by a number of households who’ve filed lawsuits questioning its use.
This 12 months, the governor has known as the legislature right into a particular session starting Jan. 27 to take up “public security” measures aimed toward curbing unlawful immigration, a statewide personal college voucher proposal, and emergency help for flood-damaged elements of northeast Tennessee.
However Democrats mentioned Wednesday that immigration and vouchers are distractions from the toll of gun violence on Tennesseans, particularly its youngest residents.
In 2022, firearms had been the main reason for demise among the many state’s kids and youths ages 1-17.
“Whereas we don’t but know all of the circumstances of the taking pictures, we do know {that a} minor one way or the other accessed a handgun, walked into his college with that handgun and dedicated an unspeakable act of violence, ending his personal life and the lifetime of an harmless youngster,” mentioned Rep. John Ray Clemmons, of Nashville, who chairs the Home Democratic Caucus.
Antioch is similar neighborhood the place Shaundelle Brooks’ son Akilah was killed throughout a 2018 taking pictures at a Waffle Home restaurant. Brooks, who has change into an outspoken advocate for gun management, was elected final fall to signify the realm within the state Home of Representatives. She was sworn in final week because the legislature convened a brand new two-year session.
“We’re just one week into the beginning of our legislative session and already our state has been ravaged by one other college taking pictures,” Brooks mentioned Wednesday. “We should do higher.”
The governor mentioned on social media that he had been briefed concerning the taking pictures and was becoming a member of Tennesseans “in praying for the victims, their households & the college group.” A number of GOP leaders within the legislature mentioned they had been ready for extra particulars from regulation enforcement.
States search for methods to guard America’s colleges
Different states have taken quite a lot of approaches to answer college shootings, usually coloured by which political social gathering is in energy.
Final month in Michigan, lawmakers permitted a package deal of payments aimed toward stopping violence in colleges within the wake of the 2021 Oxford college taking pictures that killed 4 college students.
A few of the laws had bipartisan assist, together with payments placing extra psychological well being assist in place for college kids and creating standardized terminology for first responders and college workers to make use of throughout college emergencies. Others, resembling a invoice requiring districts to ship dwelling details about protected firearm storage, had been pushed by by Democrats.
In Georgia, legislators are floating concepts to guard college students in response to a mass taking pictures at highschool final September, together with revisiting a tax credit score for gun security units that stalled final 12 months. Different measures are anticipated to deal with pupil psychological well being and, as in Michigan, higher communication between college districts and different authorities companies.
The Georgia taking pictures, in Apalachee, raised main questions on how college techniques and regulation enforcement share info, in addition to the poor state of psychological well being security nets. The alleged shooter had been investigated beforehand on suspicion of creating on-line threats. His mom reportedly known as the college warning of an “excessive emergency” that morning, however college officers weren’t capable of finding the coed earlier than the taking pictures began.
Lawmakers in Texas, one other Republican-controlled state, mandated armed guards at each public college, panic buttons in lecture rooms, extra workers coaching, and extra psychological well being assist for college kids after the 2022 Uvalde taking pictures.
Latest college shootings even have centered extra consideration on how shooters acquire their weapons — research discover that the majority of them get them at dwelling. Mother and father confronted prices after shootings in Oxford, Michigan, and Apalachee, Georgia.
Almost all public colleges management entry to their doorways when children are within the constructing with measures like locks and monitoring. Many now use a single level of entry. Round 60% of public colleges additionally management entry to their grounds when college is in session with limitations like a locked gate.
Round 45% of public colleges had an armed police officer or different sworn regulation enforcement officer current a minimum of as soon as per week in the course of the 2021-22 college 12 months, the latest federal information exhibits.
Two armed college useful resource officers had been patrolling Antioch Excessive College in Nashville when Wednesday’s taking pictures occurred, authorities mentioned. Police mentioned that by the point the 2 officers arrived on the cafeteria, the taking pictures was over and the shooter was useless.
The college will likely be closed for the remainder of the week as Metro Nashville Public Faculties arranges for grief counseling and different assist for college kids and workers.
Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.
