East Tenn. college student pushing for ‘Alyssa’s Law’ amid Nashville school shooting

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - The Nashville Police officers were applauded for their quick response time in Monday’s shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville.

Police said it took 14 minutes from the time the shooter entered the school, to the time Metro Police killed the shooter.

Now, an East Tennessee college student wants that quick response to be the norm.

“By getting law enforcement contacted faster, they’re able to get to the school faster, and respond faster,” Jadyn Turner said, a volunteer for Make Our Schools Safe.

Turner, originally from New York, is a freshman at Lincoln Memorial University. She knows first-hand how school shootings can impact families and communities.

Her cousin, Alyssa Alhadeff, was one of 17 people killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018.

Turner’s family has since started the ‘Make our Schools Safe’ group. The goal is to pass Alyssa’s Law, which would place silent panic buttons throughout public schools. When pressed, it would send an automatic signal to police that there’s an active shooter.

“It’s a lot easier to press a button to contact the police and tell them that there’s something wrong at the school, than to have to make a phone call when you’re already in a panic state,” Turner said.

Alyssa’s Law has been passed in New York, New Jersey, and Florida, bi-partisan in all cases. It’s been introduced in six other states too: Virginia, Georgia, Texas, Nebraska, Arizona, and Oregon. Turner said it costs each state a few thousand dollars per school to install the technology.

She said she has reached out to several Tennessee lawmakers in the past few months, but hasn’t heard anything back yet.

“It shouldn’t be controversial legislation. It should be, yes we want to protect our kids,” Turner said.

The ultimate goal according to Turner, is to pass the law in all 50 states, or at the federal level.

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