Arkansas Senate OKs record-law exemption

Bill aims for secrecy on school-security employees, operations

Legislation that would exempt from public disclosure the identities of security personnel of public schools, colleges and universities cleared the Senate on Thursday.

The vote was 24-5 to send Senate Bill 12 by Sen. Gary Stubblefield, R-Branch, to the House for further consideration.

The bill also would exempt from the Freedom of Information Act information or records that would "reasonably be expected to be detrimental to the public safety, including without limitation records or other information concerning emergency or security plans, school safety plans, procedures, risk assessments, studies, measures, or systems."

The bill would apply to every public school that operates a pre-kindergarten program or serves students from kindergarten through 12th grade. It also would apply to public colleges and universities.

Stubblefield said he wants to make sure that eight teachers in Clarksville who carry weapons to protect lives don't have their names on the front page of a newspaper.

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After a senator asked what assurance there is that the bill won't be used "as a backdoor way" to deny public-records requests, Sen. Eddie Joe Williams, R-Cabot, said a judge could order a school district to disclose information if an attorney is hired to file a lawsuit challenging the disclosure of information.

But Sen. Linda Collins-Smith, R-Pocahontas, said, "Not everyone can afford to go to court."

Sen. Jake Files, R-Fort Smith, said a school district could conceivably hire "a secret security force" of 20 and 30 law enforcement officers, and he wondered how he could get information about that under the legislation.

Stubblefield said the school superintendent could be asked for that information.

Tom Larimer, executive director of the Arkansas Press Association, warned Wednesday that "the bill would create a cloak of secrecy around school security plans that would remove any possibility of the people knowing if they even have a security plan.

"It closes everything related to the security plan. It's written very broadly. I really don't see what they are trying to hide," he said.

A Section on 02/10/2017






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