This week, the U.S. House passed U.S. Rep. John Rutherford’s, R-Fla., “Student, Teachers, and Officers Preventing (STOP) School Violence Act.”
The measure passed the House on Wednesday on a 407-10 vote with five libertarian Republicans like U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., and U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, R-NC, and five of the more left-leaning members of the Democratic caucus like and U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Tex., voting against it. Thirteen members did not vote and that includes two members of the Florida delegation--Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Democrat Frederica Wilson--who cosponsored the bill.
Introduced at the end of January, before the Parkland shooting, the proposal “would create a grant program to train students, teachers, school officials, and local law enforcement how to identify and intervene early when signs of violence arise, create a coordinated reporting system, and implement FBI & Secret Service-based school threat assessment protocols to prevent school shootings before they happen" and “would boost school efforts to develop violence prevention programs and coordinate with law enforcement to improve school.”
The bill had 100 cosponsors with U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., as one of the original cosponsors. Rutherford’s proposal would reauthorize the 2001 Secure Our Schools program and send $50 million to schools around the nation for school safety.
Rutherford, who served as sheriff of Duval County before being elected to the House in 2016, weighed in on why he had brought out the bill.
“Today’s vote in the House marks an important step toward keeping our children and our schools safe," Rutherford said after the House passed his bill. "As a career law enforcement officer in Jacksonville, I know that security requires a multi-layered approach. The STOP School Violence Act will give schools and communities the resources they need to identify threats and prevent acts of violence before they occur so we can avoid tragedies like what transpired at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School a month ago today. I commend Rep. Deutch, along with our colleagues on both sides of the aisle, for working with us to make schools more secure, and I look forward to seeing the Senate join us in the effort to protect our kids.”
“I’m deeply grateful to Sandy Hook Promise for their tireless support for this legislation," said Deutch. "When we first introduced this bill, I had no idea it would hit so close to home for me and my community. This vote is proof that Congress can take bipartisan action to keep our children safe. However, my colleagues should not be mistaken to think this is enough. We cannot tackle the rampant gun violence in our country without addressing guns themselves. Let’s move with this bipartisan momentum and pass meaningful legislation to make our communities safe.”
Rutherford and Deutch rounded up most of the Florida delegation to back the proposal as Republican U.S. Reps. Gus Bilirakis, Vern Buchanan, Carlos Curbelo, Mario Diaz-Balart, Matt Gaetz, Brian Mast, Bill Posey, Tom Rooney, Ros-Lehtinen and Dennis Ross and Democratic U.S. Reps. Lois Frankel, Al Lawson, Stephanie Murphy, Darren Soto, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Wilson cosponsored the bill.
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