School Safety Experts react to Gov. Lee’s $205 million proposal

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - Monday, Governor Bill Lee proposed $205 million in additional school safety measures following last week’s deadly shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville.

Following the announcement, debate sparked if the move did enough to address the issue.

School safety experts feel the Governor’s proposal is a step in the right direction.

”What I would suggest is it takes more than one solution, it takes multiple solutions,” said Dr. Marc Zimmerman.

Zimmerman is the Co-Director at the National Center for School Safety at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Zimmerman’s goal is to use data to guide the conversation about school safety.

”I don’t like to talk about it in politics, I try to avoid that situation that’s for the politicians, my job is to get an evidence base do the research to what things are working, what things are the riskiest places, and intervene in multiple ways sometimes individuals, sometimes its the context, sometimes it’s the families, but its all of it,” said Dr. Zimmerman.

His ideas range from emotional learning to SRO training and placements, to gun safety at home.

”Some of it is social-emotional learning, some of it is climate and bullying prevention, some of it is creating a supporting environment some of it is detecting early signs,” said Zimmerman.

While the Governor’s proposal doesn’t cover every base, Dr. Zimmermna feels it’s a good starting place and can help move the conversation in the right direction.

”We landed people on the moon we should be able to do this as a nation if we decide to do it, and if we decide to do it, it not become a political hot potato,” said Dr. Zimmerman.

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