Governor proposes $205M school safety plan; three Dems face expulsion

A week after six people died in a Nashville school shooting, Gov. Bill Lee pitched a $205 million school safety program containing nothing about gun restrictions, despite a day-long protest against lax weapon laws.

Lee acknowledged he would consider something akin to a red flag law as part of an effort to keep mentally unstable people from possessing guns, but he offered no specifics.

Meanwhile, three Democratic lawmakers who led a House floor protest Thursday – Reps. Justin Pearson of Memphis, Justin Jones of Nashville and Gloria Johnson of Knoxville – are being removed from committees and stripped of their parking and building entrance passes. Republicans filed resolutions Monday to expel them from the body for violating House rules.

The cornerstone of the governor’s plan is to spend $140 million for a school resource officer grant fund to put trained, armed security guards in every public and private school. Another $30 million would go toward expanding a statewide homeland security network with 122 agents working public and private schools.

The governor would spend another $27 million for public and private school security upgrades, and $8 million would go toward school-based behavioral health liaisons statewide.

These spending measures, which have to be approved by the General Assembly as part of the state’s fiscal 2023-24 budget, would go on top of a bill already designed to bolster school security. HB322/SB274 requires locked doors at schools, active shooter training for school security guards, creation of threat assessment teams and yearly safety plans.

“These are practical, thoughtful solutions we can all agree upon,” Lee said in a Tennessee Tower press conference backed by about 20 Republican lawmakers and one Democrat, Rep. Antonio Parkinson of Memphis.

Lee said he believes putting an officer in every school would be “a giant step” in improving security.

Other legislative leaders blamed “one evil person” for the six shooting deaths at The Covenant School in Green Hills, and House Majority Leader William Lamberth claimed with the new plan any person who tries to commit another school shooting “will be dead before you hit the front door.”

Asked whether he would support passage of a red flag law to enable court-ordered confiscation of weapons from mentally unstable people, Lee said he and state leaders agree that “a person who is a threat to themselves or a threat to others should not have access to weapons,” as long as the state can avoid violating their constitutional rights.

House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Ray Clemmons pointed out Monday the governor still hasn’t uttered the word “gun” in the week since the shooting.

“This fact evidences a political cowardice that plagues our Capitol and threatens every community,” Clemmons said. “The need to put an armed security guard in every school is a result of the real problem. It is not a solution to the problem.”

He urged passage of red flag laws and efforts to “encourage responsible gun ownership.”

Neither the governor nor other Republican legislative leaders broached the possibility of limiting the flow of military-type weapons to the public. The governor, however, did reiterate that he supports the state’s current permitless gun-carry law, which has a minimum age of 21.

The Legislature is considering a bill that would drop the age to 18 after Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti reached a court settlement with a California gun-rights group to lower the gun-carry age to 18- and 20-year-olds. The East Tennessee judge signed the order last March 27, the day Audrey Hale gunned down six people at the private Christian school.

Protest aftermath

House Speaker Cameron Sexton removed Pearson, Jones and Johnson from committees Monday for what he called an “insurrection” on the House floor last Thursday when they went to the podium to protest their mics being cut as they tried to address hundreds of people rallying in the balconies and hallways of the Capitol for gun restrictions.

Three Republicans filed resolutions Monday to remove the three from the House, a rare move in House proceedings.

A two-thirds vote of the chamber is required for expulsion of any member, but Republicans hold a supermajority with 64 of the House’s 99 seats.

The trio would likely be given a chance to defend themselves before the entire chamber, possibly Thursday.

One resolution points out the state Constitution enables the House to punish members for “disorderly behavior.” House rules include “preserving order, adhering to decorum, speaking only with recognition, not crowding around the Clerk’s desk, avoiding personalities, and not using props or displaying political messages.”

It contends Jones, Johnson and Pearson “did knowingly and intentionally bring disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives through their individual and collective actions.”

It notes the trio moved to the well last Thursday at 10:49 a.m. and started shouting and pounding on the podium, leading chants with a crowded gallery and “engaged in disorderly and disruptive conduct, including refusing to leave the well, sitting on the podium, and utilizing a sign displaying a political message.”

Jones and Pearson both used a megaphone to rally the crowds.

Even though the trio used a megaphone to exhort people to cheers and chants in the chamber, Sexton laid all of the blame on the three lawmakers. The Crossville Republican said he “clarified” what he said Friday on a talk radio show when he characterized the floor revolt as the same or worse than the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection that claimed the lives of five people and led to hundreds of arrests.

“What the protesters were here for, which was to talk about (school safety), was a whole different subject than what the three Democrat members did on the House floor. That is not one incident. Those are two separate incidents,” Sexton said.

Sexton said state troopers had to form a line in front of the House doors to keep protesters from entering, and he said other lawmakers told him the protesters spat on them. He couldn’t confirm that.

The trio responded Monday, saying what they did was not an insurrection, but merely speaking to the people who were rallying against gun violence. Johnson pointed out they were at the podium for about 15 seconds before Sexton called a five-minute recess, which lasted about 45 minutes.

Once the House session resumed, Sexton even called on Pearson to speak about legislation. He read an entire bill sponsored by Lamberth after the House leader refused to answer questions.

Before going to the front of the chamber to rally the crowd, Jones and Pearson had tried several times to speak about the hundreds of people in the Capitol. As the vote wrapped up on a bill dealing with expansion of the private school vouchers, Jones claimed that his voting button had been shut down, and then they took over the House floor.

“The three of us were tired of our voice not being heard,” Johnson said. 

She added, “It was not an insurrection. How dare he say on the news that he was afraid for his life and that there was an insurrection. It is embarrassing to me.”

The trio point out several lawmakers who’ve committed much worse infractions than disrupting the House were allowed to continue in office without sanctions or the threat of expulsion.

Jones contended Sexton is the “insurrectionist” for cutting off their microphones and stopping them from speaking to the protesters.

They scoffed at the governor’s school safety proposal, saying it creates a “military” atmosphere rather than getting to the root of the problem.

“The thousands of children and adults who marched outside of the people’s House are not insurrectionists,” Pearson said. “My walk, my colleagues’ walk to the House floor was in a peaceful manner, and it was not an insurrection.”

Pearson noted he only wanted to listen to people who were not given an opportunity to speak and pointed out nobody violence was threatened during the day, unlike the Jan. 6 incident in Washington D.C.

During a slowdown in the House floor action, Minority Leader Karen Camper and Rep. Joe Towns appeared to be chastising Jones and Pearson. But the two protesting representatives said Monday she was only concerned that they were going to be expelled immediately. 

She led them into a side room for discussion as Towns guarded the door.