Comprehensive gun violence reduction bill signed into law

A comprehensive gun violence reduction bill championed by House Speaker Robert DeLeo and signed into law by Gov. Deval Patrick on Aug. 13 creates a number of new responsibilities for local school districts.

The law, passed by the Legislature on July 31, the last day of formal sessions, contains a Safe and Supportive Schools (S3) framework designed to foster a “safe, positive, healthy, and inclusive whole-school learning environment.”

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is required to develop guidelines and regulations outlining how the S3 program should be implemented locally. Cities, towns and school districts are not mandated to accept and implement the program, because the law stipulates that S3 must first be adopted by a vote of the local school committee and is subject to local appropriation.

The legislation does require that each school district have at least one school resource officer and that each school possess a two-way radio communication device for use in communicating solely with police and fire departments in the event of an emergency, although these requirements are both subject to local appropriation.

The MMA successfully advocated for the inclusion of language limiting potential legal liability for districts in both the S3 and school resource officer sections of the law.

The law requires each school to create a mental health plan for its students, families, teachers and administrators. DESE is charged with developing the guidelines and requirements for this provision. There is no state funding, however, so the program is a new unfunded mandate on cities, towns and school districts. The MMA requested that this provision be held in conference, but the language remained in the final bill.

Similarly, each school must also provide suicide prevention training of at least two hours every three years for all licensed school personnel.

The MMA was successful in sponsoring language to limit legal liability for districts on both of these new requirements.

The new gun law also creates new policies for local police departments. The most significant is a provision that gives police chiefs more discretion in deeming an applicant for a firearms identification card unfit, but the chief is required to petition the court within 90 days to validate his or her finding and withhold the firearms identification card. Previously, police chiefs only had discretion with issuing handgun permits.

The compromise legislation follows the work of a gun violence reduction policy task force appointed by Speaker DeLeo, and dozens of bills relating to gun violence filed by lawmakers this session. The bills were largely prompted by the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012.