Utah lawmaker focusing on school safety this legislative session

SALT LAKE CITY — A new bill seeks to prioritize school safety in Utah.

Bill sponsor Rep. Ryan Wilcox, R-Ogden, is no stranger to school safety legislation. Last year, he sponsored the law that required armed guardians at Utah schools.

This year, Wilcox is working to improve safety measures in Utah’s schools.

 

Wilcox told Dave & Dujanovic that under his bill, the Utah Legislature’s School Security Task Force committee would use state security assessments to pinpoint the needsof each school individually.

“So it isn’t just about spending money or throwing dollars at different problems. It’s understanding what needs to be prioritized,” Wilcox said.

Minimum safety and security standards for Utah schools

Based on the assessments and in collaboration with the State Board of Education, the bill would set “minimum safety and security standards for all public and private school facilities,” according to its current language.

One example of those minimum standards is having bleed kits and first aid kits in every classroom.

“You would think that that would be kind of intuitive. But as we did the assessments to make sure, they weren’t there,” Wilcox said.

The bill would also prioritize providing districts with wearable panic buttons for teachers. This portion of the bill has to do with Alyssa’s law, which was originally passed last year.

Although it passed in 2024, not every teacher has a panic button yet. The School Security Task Force hopes to change that in this year’s session.

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