Feb 21, 2024

HB 1761, Rep. Justin Hicks, the School Prison Bill, would add a new statute: §160.672
This bill applies to ALL public schools, quaintly named Attendance Centers. Among other measures, the bill requires all public schools, without exception, to install bullet proof and bullet resistant laminate on all doors and windows that might be accessible by an intruder.
Schools are required to select a contractor before July 1, 2025 and “shall” be classified as unaccredited if the work isn’t completed by July 1, 2028. Noncompliance is reported to DESE.
School districts “shall” allocate money for this project from funds distributed from their “Classroom Trust Fund” under §163.043.
DESE determines whether the school district’s security project meets the requirements of this bill. If the legislature appropriates funds under the newly created School Safety and Security Matching Grant Program, school districts may receive a matching grant of 50% of their costs.
DESE will receive applications for the matching grant as well as the school district’s expense receipts. Dese will award matching grants with priority given to school districts demonstrating need.
The matching grant program sunsets six years after this bill becomes law.
Comment: Monies distributed from the Classroom Trust Fund, “shall be spent at the discretion of the local school district.” §163.043 2.
The Classroom Trust Fund consists of money appropriated or donated to it, all unclaimed lottery prize money, and excursion boat gambling boat proceeds, deposited to the Gaming Proceeds Education Fund, that exceed the amount transferred to the School District Bond Fund. §163.043 3. (see also 160.534 and 164.303)
This bill imposes a state decreed and defined notion of what constitutes security upon all public school districts without regard to whether they actually need it, and without input from local school officials, parents and taxpayers. It also infringes on the local school district’s discretion to spend Classroom Trust Funds as they see fit – which includes expenses for teachers, textbooks and technology, school construction, renovations and leasing as well as safety. Penalizing the school district with loss of accreditation if they don’t comply with this bill and DESE’s interpretation of it gives DESE a lot of unchecked power over school districts. It’s likely companies that sell and install these proposed security systems will establish their standards with DESE if they aren’t already the source of this bill.
The bill imposes unknown costs and short timeframes upon school districts with no consideration for their ongoing financial obligations for the education of children. It also ignores the loss of funding school districts will experience with expansion of tax credits through the Empowerment Scholarship Program. School Districts lose funding for students enrolled in that Program in 2026. (§160.720 4). School district funding is also being threatened by SB 729 which gives tax credits to anyone sending their child to a private school.
Sixty percent of school funding comes from local sources with only thirty percent from the state. (Yet the state dictates to the schools?)
The Security measures could trap students in the building in the event of a fire or intruder. If students cannot exit through a door, how will they break the bullet and riot resistant glass in their classroom windows?
We instinctively know it is not healthy for anyone to experience unrelenting anxiety. Growing up female, we are conscious we can be raped which is frightening. But we don’t dwell on it and aren’t reminded of our vulnerability every single day. What is the message of these prison like buildings? What is the effect on our children of being told every single day that the world is not safe for them? Who benefits from this messaging? And is it even true?
Who we are, our social ability, ability to learn from others, ability to remember, are governed by the hippocampus in our brain. The hippocampus remembers long term and instantaneously everything we’ve learned. Because the hippocampus is small and can’t store everything, it selects for memory things that are attached to emotions. Things that feel good or are threatening are then stored to long term memory. At night these memories are moved to the neo cortex which is much larger and can hold all of our memories. Neurogenesis creates new neurons for the hippocampus so the next morning, the hippo campus is restored and more learning can take place. The hippocampus can become depleted during the day to the point that new learning cannot happen. We’ve all experienced this mental exhaustion.
What happens when people are bombarded with fear messages? Their hippocampus is filled with those messages and cannot learn new things. Without new learning, the hippocampus shrinks. Their personality shrinks too as they become people who use the routine portion of their brain that doesn’t require thought. All of this is known. I’d encourage legislators to listen to interviews by Michael Nehls, MD and alzheimer’s researcher or read his book, The Indoctrinated Brain. Please engage in some new learning prior to imposing fear messages on our children.
If we truly believe that our children are not safe when they attend public school, it’s time to do something different. Let’s keep all that money we pay in taxes for schools and educate our children ourselves, free from school building prisons, social experimentation, corporate propaganda, government bureaucracies – all of it.
We can form communities of parents and grandparents, friends and neighbors to teach our children. We don’t need the government’s permission.
Update:
This bill is being voted on in executive session today. Please call your Missouri Representative and tell them about this bill. Tell them to vote NO on this bill if it comes to the floor for a vote.
You can find your Rep here: https://house.mo.gov/legislatorlookup.aspx