School Safety

Since the horrific Parkland school shooting, where 17 lives were tragically lost, the teens of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School started an effort that’s inspiring a movement and debates over how to keep our schools safe.

When I co-founded Sandy Hook Promise (SHP), I knew the younger generation would lead the way on changing the landscape around gun reform. Today, we see this with the Parkland students.

Gun violence is being woven into the fabric of our culture. Without holistic reforms, it’s only going to get worse.

The Quinnipiac University Poll conducted in the days immediately after the Parkland, Florida, tragedy showed a groundswell of voter sentiment for rewriting the country’s gun laws.

About 96 Americans are killed by guns every single day; probably twice as many are shot and injured and will carry with them long-term health consequences.

Nearly 25 years ago, I graduated from Stoneman Douglas High School. While it’s always shocking to hear of any school shooting, the anguish victims’ families experience becomes more relevant when the tragedy takes place at your school.

We all watched in horror as the shooting occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. It is urgent that we work together to enact bipartisan policy solutions and make meaningful changes to keep our children safe.

In the wake of the tragic shooting in Parkland, Florida, state legislatures around the country are taking a closer look at strengthening school safety measures, including potentially arming school employees.

Employing carefully selected, specially trained school resource officers (SROs) is one of the most effective ways schools can improve safety and security. SROs are sworn police officers employed by a law enforcement agency.

We need to stop thinking of school safety as something we check off our to-do lists. One law, lock or lockdown drill will never be enough to protect our schools.

In the wake of the tragedy in Florida, our country must do what is necessary to keep our kids safe at school.

Too often, kids with mental health symptoms are pushed aside or punished for having “behavioral problems” and aren’t directed toward treatment.

School-based mental health services promote student safety, well-being and learning.

This time is different, they say. Columbine, Newtown, Orlando, Las Vegas, Parkland. These are America’s best known mass murders of innocents by men who used weapons of war.