(Source: MIRS.news, Published 10/07/2024) A new $1 million funding pot for students to anonymously report "improperly stored" guns is supposed to go to Michigan's current OK2SAY program, which is a statewide tip line for school safety, says Rep. Regina Weiss (D-Oak Park), chair of the House School Aid Appropriations subcommittee. 

"The vision of it is to help support additional resources for OK2SAY, which is the existing tip line that's well established in the state. We have seen, fortunately or unfortunately . . . depending on how you look at it, an uptick in the use of OK2SAY," said Weiss to MIRS today. 

On Sept. 25, Weiss's HB 5503, a School Aid Fund spending bill, passed in the House 98-11 and 23-15 in the Senate. 

The bill contained two pieces, $125 million for one-time mental health and school safety grants and $1 million for school districts and the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) to collaborate on a tip line and learning materials around improper firearm storage. 

Due to the Republican argument that the legislation was a "half measure" for Democrats to try to make up for shortfalls in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 school aid budget, the bill failed to receive the 26-senator vote to receive immediate effect. 

For example, the official School Aid Budget, covering the 2024-25 academic year, did not continue a $328 million appropriation from last year's budget that went toward mental health and school safety grants, available to both public and private schools. 

Instead, the grant program was brought down to $25 million as an ongoing commitment and $1.5 million as a one-time investment. The original mandate that 50 percent of a school district's grant must go to mental health expenditures, not physical safety spending, was struck out. 

As for HB 5503 in particular, the money will not be deployed until 90 days after the Legislature adjourns for the year. 

OK2SAY gives students the ability to submit anonymous tips related to school safety through the web, text and phone call. 

In 2023, the tip line received 9,686 tips during last year alone, according to OK2SAY's annual report. When compared to 2022, the number of received tips has increased by 31 percent.

Based on 3,468 outcome reports finished last year, 2,361 tip submissions resulted in parents being notified, 1,286 led to school counseling and 821 resulted in law enforcement becoming involved. 

Among all the 2023 tips, 185 were categorized under "guns," while 1,769 were linked to bullying, 1,286 were under "drugs" and 1,462 involved suicide threats. 

"We also know that with this new legislation that we've passed around safe storage, we anticipate that there's going to be continued more use of it," Weiss said. "If a child, for example, is at a friend's house, and they notice or the friend showed an improperly stored firearm, was playing with it or something . . . the other student who's there may want to report that." 

The same $1 million will additionally be used by the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) to prepare and distribute learning materials related to safe firearm storage and how to make reports. 

Following the Democratic-led 2023 firearm reform, a parent or guardian faces a 93-day, $500 misdemeanor if their failure to properly store a gun leads to a minor showing it off recklessly or threateningly in front of others. If the minor discharges the firearm and seriously impairs themselves or someone else, the parent will face a $7,500, 10-year felony. 

If the minor kills themselves or another person with that gun, the parent's penalty becomes a 15-year, $10,000 felony. 

"Every tip that's reported, that is all administered through (the Michigan State Police), and they use their expertise and their discretion to determine what should be investigated further and how that investigation should proceed," Weiss said. 

However, the Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Owners (MCRGO) made a tweet about HB 5503's language on Sept. 25. When MIRS talked to Steve Dulan, the first vice chair of MCRGO, he explained that people perceive the line-item as "the Snitch on Your Parents Hotline." 

"It's a small subset . . . but we also know this is the population that does things like call SWAT raids on kids who beat them on online video games, for example. That happens, and people have died in those situations," Dulan said. "You're creating another way to essentially send police to somebody's house anonymously, and it has no positive benefit that anybody can see in terms of what are the police going to do about it?" 

Dulan raised the question of why the state would infuse money into advising students to anonymously report the site of an unstored firearm, as opposed to making schools more comfortable to use learning materials like "Eddie Eagle." 

"Eddie Eagle" is a Pre-K through fourth grade lesson program for gun accident prevention, instructing children that if they see a firearm, they should "Stop! Don't touch. Run Away. Tell a grown-up." 

"What is this million dollars for? What's the purpose of it? To us, it's just anti-gun propaganda. It's just demonizing gun owners, trying to make gun owners more nervous, trying to sort of create more of a stigma around families that own guns," Dulan said. "Which, you know, approximately half of all the households in Michigan." 

However, Senate Appropriations Chair Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing) sees HB 5503 giving school districts the opportunity to educate families and students about the safe storage laws on their own terms.

"What my goal would be is that the state creates some statewide best practices and materials that can be distributed and customized based on the needs of districts," Anthony said to MIRS on Tuesday. "Our urban districts and rural districts sometimes approach education and communication tools very, very…differently, and so we like to give our districts the opportunity to do what works for them." 

Anthony confirmed she's never heard many complaints about OK2SAY, adding that she herself is a gun owner who often carries and "I'm not just like an anti-gun nut." 

She said it is the Legislature's responsibility to make sure Michiganders understand what the laws actually mean, and to offer education to prevent unintended consequences and ultimate tragedies. 

Weiss said a letter to MDE is being prepared to clarify that the $1 million is intended for OK2SAY.