It’s with a heavy heart that we commend the state Senate Education Committee for unanimously approving a bill earlier this week that would create an anonymous reporting system for threats directed at schools.

The Safe2Say program, which is modeled after Colorado’s Safe2Tell program, was approved Tuesday by members of the committee. The bill now moves to the full Senate for a vote.

It would provide for “anonymous reporting concerning unsafe, potentially harmful, dangerous, violent or criminal activities in schools or the threat of the activities,” and would cover emergency and non-emergency reports.

Anyone would be able to use the system, which would be created and overseen by the state attorney general’s office. In addition to creating the system, the AG’s office would also be responsible for training local officials on appropriate responses to school threats, and developing educational and promotional awareness for the program.

Butler County parents and students don’t need reminding that such a reporting system is — again, very sadly — necessary.

School districts around the county have been dealing with school threats on what seems like a routine basis following the mass killing earlier this year in Parkland, Fla.

Butler School District took the extraordinary-but-necissary step of closing Campus Lane to thru-traffic and un-scheduled visitors after a threat against the school emerged in February.

Ensuring the safety and security of students on campus should be every district’s top priority, but it is beyond any district’s capacity to create a reporting system like the one proposed by the Senate legislation.

That’s why state legislators should move with all haste to approve this program, and the Attorney General’s office should not delay in setting up the infrastructure necessary to provide a venue for safe, anonymous reporting.

That is, sadly, what these times require.

—PAR