Oklahoma storm shelter advocates have launched a new petition drive that calls on the state to issue $500 million in state bonds that would cover the cost to put in places of refuge in all of Oklahoma’s public schools.
Unlike the first failed attempt earlier this year, the new proposal would have the bonds repaid with General Revenue Fund money instead of franchise tax revenues, the Oklahoman reported. Supporters said the first petition drive became to politicized.
Proponents have three months to collect the 155,216 signatures needed to land the question on the November ballot. If the measure is successful, the bond money could also be used for security improvements.
The attorney representing the campaign, David Slane, said 61 percent of the state’s public schools lack storm shelters. That leaves more than 506,000 students and school staff without a safe place to wait out a storm.
“We find ourselves over a year after the last tornado and Oklahoma still has no comprehensive plan to protect our children. Oklahoma can do better,” Slane said at a recent press conference that included the mothers of two of the seven children who perished in the tornado that hit Moore, Okla., last May. Another 24 students and teachers were injured when the EF5 tornado destroyed Plaza Towers and Briarwood elementary schools. In total, 50 people died in that storm.
In addition to the need for more storm shelters, a recent analysis of two Oklahoma schools destroyed in that storm revealed construction errors and code violations that contributed to the buildings’ failure.
