Forest Country News

A piece of legislation that’s navigating its way through the lower chamber of the Texas House of Representatives seeks to provide school security officers with additional mental health training, Tyler CBS affiliate KYTX reported.

LegiScan explained that House Bill (HB) 4777 is a “moderate partisan” measure pertaining “to the model training curriculum for school district peace officers and school resource officers.” 

According to the online legislation database, HB 4777 is sponsored by nine Democrats and a pair of Republicans. 

KYTX reported that Jacksonville Independent School District (JISD) Chief of Police Bill Avera spoke before a House committee about the bill earlier this month.

Per the station, Avera said his goal is two-fold as he wants to boost campus safety and for officers to forge stronger relationships with the students they’re assigned to protect and serve.

"It's critical that we have those relationships, and that those officers are able to talk with those students on a daily basis," the chief said in his testimony, KYTX reported.

If approved in both chambers of the Texas Legislature and signed into law by the governor, the officers would receive additional training and education in relation to different mental health conditions in an effort to properly steer students toward the appropriate resources for help.

"The officers being able to recognize behaviors that might indicate that they have been exposed to grief, or trauma and over their lives, is very important to help us maintain a safe and secure environment," Avera said, according to the report.

HB 4777 is among the slew of bills focused on school safety that were filed in the ongoing 88th legislative session. 

In the past half-decade, two school shootings have occurred in the Lone Star State: Santa Fe High School in 2018 that claimed the lives of 10 people and Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School nearly last year in which 19 students and two teachers were fatally shot.

State Republicans have stressed that mental health was a factor in each event.

JISD is about 30 miles south of Tyler.