TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Paul Burch on Feb 9, 2024

The state House on Thursday passed HB1644/SB1679, legislation that would require all schools, public or private, to develop emergency procedures to determine the cause of an activated fire alarm, reports the Tennessean. Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, filed the bill in response to the Covenant School shooting, and the House first passed a version during the August special session. After the legislation failed to advance during a House and Senate stalemate, Lamberth refiled a new version earlier this year. In other news, Rep. Gino Bulso, R-Brentwood, is sponsoring a bill to ban all but a narrowly defined list of flags from display in Tennessee public schools. Two heated committee meetings drew protestors on both sides of the issue. Broadly, HB1605, bans displays that “represent a political viewpoint, including but not limited to, a partisan, racial, sexual orientation, gender, or other ideological viewpoint.”