Tennessee State Senator Mark Pody (R-Lebanon) joined Monday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss the latest developments surrounding his efforts to make new school-specific security technology eligible for the school safety grants approved by the General Assembly last year.
In May, Governor Bill Lee signed a bill approving a grant program for law enforcement agencies and schools to use in order to “further strengthen security at Tennessee schools.” The funding is divided into two grant programs – Statewide School Resource Officer Grants and Public & Non-Public School Security Grants.
A total of $54 million – $40 million for public schools and $14 million for non-public schools – was allocated by the General Assembly for the Public & Non-Public School Security Grants to be used by schools to support a variety of security efforts, including “improved physical security, emergency operations planning, violence prevention programs, conflict resolution and safety training for staff members.”
In December, Pody introduced a bill that would allow a device with emergency buttons, GPS tracking technology, and real-time video and audio recording capabilities worn by teachers and administrators to be eligible to be funded by the existing Public & Non-Public School Security Grants.
However, during Monday’s interview with Leahy, Pody announced he spoke with the Tennessee Department of Education last week and the department changed the rules of the grant to accommodate funding requests for such devices.
“People have looked at this bill and they thought so much about it. They were able to make it happen by changing the rules and policies. So we didn’t even need the bill. Didn’t even need to run it. They just made it effective last week saying that any school system that wants to apply, the money is already there and they can make this happen to make their schools safer right now,” Pody said. “They said that this would fit their criteria to make the schools safer.”
Pody added that the Department of Education is currently working on distributing a letter to each school district superintendent in the state announcing the policy change. “They’re going to be writing a letter to every single superintendent in this state right now – and they hope to have that letter out within the next 10 days to two weeks – to tell them this is available as something that’s added to them that they can apply for immediately,” Pody said.
The device available for funding through the school safety grants include three color-coded buttons for teachers or administrators to press, activating appropriate response procedures relating to behavior issues, medical emergencies, or active threats, including an active shooter.
Pody said each unit costs approximately $300 per year, per teacher.
“This is going to be a major thing to help make our schools safer right now,” Pody added.
Listen to the full interview:
– – –
Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photos “State Sen. Mark Pody” and “In-Studio at The Tennessee Star Report” by Mark Pody.
