For Richard Aspinwall, supporting legislation to bolster safety in Georgia schools is about carrying on the legacy of his son. Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall, a math teacher and football coach, was one of four people shot to death at Apalachee High School in September as he tried to protect his students. “My son was a stand-up man,” Aspinwall said Monday. "I taught him to be that way — fight for the kids.”.

Aspinall and his wife Rita were in the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta on Monday to support proposals put forward by the state House speaker, including to create a statewide student database of disciplinary, mental health and law enforcement information to evaluate students who might commit violence. The push to share information is driven by the belief among many that the Barrow County school system didn't have a full sense of the warning signs displayed by the 14-year-old accused in the shooting.

“We know that the failure to transfer and share information regarding the student accused of this horrendous act played a role in the events that unfolded that day,” House Speaker Jon Burns, a Newington Republican, said Monday. But privacy advocates warn that such a data repository could be invasive, and point to federal law enforcement agencies' findings that it is impossible to determine which students might become violent by relying on such information.

Burns proposed a package that would require each school system to create a threat assessment team of school administrators, mental health professionals and law enforcement to evaluate tips about violence. Burns also wants to require schools to report threats using an online application, and to pay for every school district to employ at least one mental health coordinator to connect students to counseling.

The speaker said he supports the $50 million that Gov. Brian Kemp wants to give schools this spring to improve security, but that he wants to spend more to create the database and pay for the mental health coordinators. Burns said the House’s spending proposal would be unveiled next week. Kemp has proposed a small spending bump that would allow schools to hire more school psychologists, but did not add funds for counselors, school social workers and mental health services. The $50 million would be in addition to $109 million already assigned for schools in the current state budget.

At least two proposed Senate bills support more sharing of information. Senate Bill 61, sponsored by Republican Sen. Greg Dolezal of Cumming, would require school records to be sent within 10 days of a student transfer to a new school and mandate that juvenile justice and child welfare agencies notify a school when a student is subject to electronic monitoring or confined to their house. Senate Bill 54, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Emanuel Jones of Decatur, would create a database of threats against schools and require in-school mental health services for any student named in the database.

Under Burns' plan, the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency would operate the database. That agency is already providing threat assessment voluntary training to school districts. Florida's attempt to create a database was initially hobbled by federal privacy laws that bar the public release of health and educational records. House Education Committee Chairman Chris Erwin, a Homer Republican, said months of study suggest Georgia can share the information “with the right individuals.”.

Georgia lawmakers are also proposing ways to respond to a wave of threats and hoaxes that followed the Apalachee shooting. The House Republican plan would require a student who makes a threat to be suspended from school until law enforcement and school leaders determine they can return. Dolezal's bill proposes that making terroristic threats against a school should be a felony and that suspects aged 13 to 16 be tried in an adult court. The cases could transfer to juvenile court if district attorneys and judges agree.

Republican state senators are also backing a plan to make every school system provide employees with wearable panic alarm systems. Apalachee teachers used wearable panic buttons to quickly warn of the shooting. Burns also supports tax incentives for people who buy gun safes or gun locks, but House and Senate Democrats are backing a plan that would require adults to lock up their guns when children are present. Officials say Colin Gray, the father of accused shooter Colt Gray, bought his son an assault-style rifle and gave him easy access, even though Colin Gray knew or should have known that his son was a danger to others.