Rock Island Today

State Rep. Tony McCombie (R-Savanna) is fighting to see the School Threat Assessment law upheld in the way she believes it needs to be.

“This is first and foremost about public safety, the public safety of our kids,” McCombie said during a recent news conference where she spoke out about recently joining forces with the Illinois Education Association (IEA) in pushing legislation that seeks to verify that school districts are complying with the letter of the law.

“Our children's safety has to come first,” McCombie said. “There are so many different mandates and guidelines that school boards and administration and our ROEs and ISBE have to follow and this is one of those. The way this legislation will be crafted is today the threat assessment plan is checked every four years basically through a compliance audit with the ROE and ISBE. The school boards have to review these threat assessments annually.”

IEA President Kathi Griffin recently announced both McCombie and Rep. Fred Crespo (D-Streamwood) are now working with the IEA on legislation dedicated to tracking which school districts are not in compliance with school threat laws.

“What happened in Michigan two weeks ago is a tragedy,” Griffin said in a news release of the Oxford High school shooting that left four students dead in late November. “Every incident where someone in a school is injured at the hand of another is heartbreaking. Violence is increasing in our schools across the state. Our educators should not have to constantly worry about their safety and the safety of their students. School administrators need to take immediate action to keep our students, staff and communities safe.”

In Illinois, the School Threat Assessment Bill, also known as HB 1561, was first introduced and ultimately passed by state lawmakers in 2019. The law instructs schools to develop a threat assessment team and a threat assessment protocol, requires school districts to implement a threat assessment procedure that may be part of a school board policy on targeted school violence and prevention and requires each district’s assessment team to include mental health professionals as well as representatives from state, county and local law enforcement agencies.

“Ideally, in a situation like what happened in Michigan, the threat assessment team would have been called upon and intervened to get the student the help they need before tragedy occurs. That’s the intent of these laws,” McCombie said in a news release. “The children of our state are our most important asset. We must ensure threat assessment plans are not only created, but also followed to keep our students safe.”