LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Michigan State Representative Mike Harris (R-Waterford) is calling on the House Education Committee to consider a school safety package of bills after the committee hosted a meeting Monday on the topic of school mental health services. 

What are the House bills?

House Bills 4088-4100, born out of a bipartisan commission’s report following the Oxford School Shooting that left four students dead, were sequestered to the committee over a year ago and have still not received a hearing. 

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The bills address numerous issues and weigh the commission’s recommendations for the legislature regarding prevention, mitigation, and response to further incidents, including the establishment of a School Safety and Mental Health Commission to facilitate school safety efforts and mental health services across the state. 

Rep. Harris renews calls for committee hearing.

Rep. Harris, a former member of the Waterford Township Police Department and school resource officer, shared his thoughts on the recent mental health focused meeting. 

“This hearing demonstrates the need for better state support of safety and mental health work in our schools,” Harris said in a statement. “School mental health professionals give students crucial support and help address the root causes of school safety, and I am grateful to the experts who testified and shared their valuable perspective. Next, the Education Committee should take up the bipartisan school safety and mental health plan, which still hasn’t received a hearing more than a year after my colleagues and I introduced it. Our plan would better coordinate school safety and mental health and provide students, teachers, counselors, school resource officers, and other school staff the tools and support they need to foster a safe and healthy learning environment in our classrooms.”

HB 4090, sponsored by Harris, would make some training standardized across the state, and is partially informed by southeast Michigan.

“What we’re finding is there is more standardized training in some of these areas, than other parts of the state,” he said in an interview with Michigan News Source, “Making sure that curriculum and resources are there so we have some standardized training for all school resource officers.”

According to Rep. Harris, “The committee process is a public transparent process, or it should be, and this is where we can work through some of the finer points if there are disagreements or changes that need to be made,” he added, “But to hold them back for a year is not acceptable.” 

Republican Leader Matt Hall seeks bipartisan approach.

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In mid-February, Representative Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) sent a letter to Michigan House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit) calling attention to a number of bills including the school safety ones stating, “now is the time to act on these bills.” 

“Please take special note of the school safety legislation that is awaiting House action,” Hall said in the letter. “The tragic shooting on Michigan State University’s campus last year ended three lives and irreparably changed countless more.”

State Representative Kelly Breen (D-Novi), a member of the bipartisan taskforce, sent a multi-page letter to Rep. Hall with her response to his unsuccessful attempt to discharge the bills from committee. 

“I am both dismayed and angered at your effort to discharge from the Education Committee House Bills 4088-4100,” she said in the letter. “This package of bills, commonly referred to as the “school safety package,” is a bipartisan effort to improve the safety and security of our schools and your blatant attempt to turn it into a political football is beyond the pale.”