COEUR d’ALENE — The Idaho Legislature could make any threat of school violence a misdemeanor, no matter where or how the threats take place.

House Bill 665 was approved 52-12 in that chamber last Friday. On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee recommended the bill to the whole Senate, where it awaits a vote.

Current state code requires a threat to be made on school grounds in order for the accused to be prosecuted. The bill would strike “on school grounds” from the state code and add in “electronic means” to allow prosecution of threats made remotely about Idaho public, private, or charter schools.

The bill would also make possession of a firearm or any “deadly or dangerous weapon” on school grounds, in furtherance of said threats, a felony. The bill defined a “deadly or dangerous weapon” as “a weapon, device, instrument, material or substance that is used for, or is readily capable of, causing death or serious bodily injury.”

Kootenai County representatives were split on the bill. Reps. Paul Amador, R-Coeur d’Alene, Don Cheatham, R-Post Falls, Luke Malek, R-Coeur d’Alene, and Eric Redman, R-Athol, voted for the bill.

Opposing the bill were Reps. Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens, and Ron Mendive, R-Coeur d’Alene.

Amador said he supported the bill because it will “allow prosecution for threats made while off school grounds as well as threats made through electronic means, such as through social media.”

Coeur d’Alene School District spokesman Scott Maben said the district supports the legislation. Its staff and students went through a period of heightened security last October after threats were made via social media against several Lake City High School students.

“We believe law enforcement should have the tools they need to address these threats before they are carried out. The recommended language in the bill would make all threats, including threats made off school grounds and/or via electronic media, a crime in Idaho,” wrote Maben.

Mendive said he is concerned about school violence, but that this bill is not the answer. It would create more problems than it would solve, he said.

“I am concerned about this bill’s effect on Constitutional rights,” Mendive said. “With this legislation a person could be charged with a misdemeanor for making an offhand comment in anger on school grounds. If that same person had a knife in his pocket he could be charged with a felony. On the playground a child could be provoked by another child and chase him across the playground saying ‘I’m going to get you’ and be charged with a misdemeanor. If that child picked up a stick he could be charged with a felony.”

Amador said a multi-pronged approach to school safety is needed, including mental health, safety training, and designing school facilities around security best practices. He also said the bill’s expansion of threats to include social media is wise.

“As far as privacy rights, I think it is probably a good reminder to all of us that our social media lives (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) are very much in the public eye,” Amador said.

Rather than go this route, though, Mendive said the work of the state’s Office of School Safety and Security, and the local option for school districts to allow teachers to train and arm some classroom teachers, were more effective solutions to the school violence problem. Redman, who supported the bill, also said he’d like to see some armed teachers in rural schools.

Redman thought the bill would achieve its purpose “as long as our law enforcers are also diligent” in contrast to how law enforcement dealt with the Feb. 14 Parkland, Fla., murders.

During the Senate committee hearing Wednesday, Sens. Dan Foreman, R-Moscow, and Anthony Potts, R-Idaho Falls, expressed concern over the bill’s vague language. Paul Jagosh of the Fraternal Order of Police said the proposal would be a tool to allow law enforcement to better protect schools, and that if any cases were unjustly prosecuted under the new language, his organization would push for a legislative fix in the future.

If approved by the Senate and signed into law by Gov. Butch Otter, the law will take effect immediately under special rules.