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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | December 20, 2023 12:16 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz and Rep. Lisa A. Borowski, Rep. Justin C. Fleming, Rep. Kyle Donahue |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Panic Alarms in Schools |
| Far too many times in America, our children’s lives have been in danger or – worse – lost in school shootings. Words cannot properly convey the magnitude of these tragedies and, every day, parents, students, and teachers suffer from the pain and worry of these events. Alyssa Alhadeff was a 14-year-old student who was murdered in the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018. Since the shooting that took her life along with the lives of 16 others, Alyssa’s parents and fellow advocates have fought for the passage of “Alyssa’s Law,” which would require or permit schools to install silent panic alarm buttons in classrooms. Our legislation would join Pennsylvania with states such as Florida, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee and Texas, which have passed Alyssa’s Law. Specifically, my legislation would require schools to consider implementing a panic alarm system within their classrooms during the annual review of their safety and security practices. These panic alarms would be directly linked to law enforcement responders and signal a life-threatening emergency. During a school shooting, every second matters. Alarms in classrooms would create faster response times during emergency situations and therefore save lives. We can always do more to help ensure the safety of our students and school employees, and this legislation would be another step towards ensuring our schools have the resources they need to maximize the safety of all people. By passing Alyssa’s Law, we would be providing for safer classrooms, faster response times and more lives saved during potential emergency situations. Please consider co-sponsoring this legislation. |
Introduced as HB1974