Students, parents, and teachers in Central New York might be wondering what comes next after Wednesday’s school walk-outs marking the one month anniversary of the Parkland, Florida massacre. There's a county-wide effort to find ways to keep students safe.
Onondaga County District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick has created a subcommittee as part of the already existing School Safety Task Force to create some guidelines for teacher and student training. He’s tapped West Genesee Superintendent Chris Brown to lead the effort.
“You don’t want to have people making it a school specific," Brown said. "So, what we are trying to do is to establish just some general best practices that any school could employ if they want to in terms types of training drills, frequency, different things you might able to do for your building to make them more secure, communication mechanisms, all of that.”
Brown says the most common requests so far from the community include having a school resource officer in every building, and better-securing entry ways to identify people coming in each school. He says the challenge is making parents, students, and staff feel as comfortable as possible every day in multiple settings.
“Students are not just at school; they are everywhere, they at the mall, they at the church, they are at games, they are somewhere, they are on the street or wherever. I just feel like we have to be as reasonable as possible. But I do think that events like this national walkout days and all that helps even if they nonpolitical as ours was, I think what they do is help everybody to be more aware because I think everybody has a shared responsibility for their own safety today unfortunately.”
Brown says even the youngest students need to be situationally aware. He knows there’s a level of anxiety knowing the shooting is Parkland is not the last. Brown says it can serve as a teaching moment…for parents
“This is one of those real good opportunities just to listen and maybe if your child participated in a walk-out, how do they feel about that, what were the emotions they felt, what do they think should be done next, like what is the next step of this.”
Brown says his next step will be to find a venue large enough for students, parents, and teachers to hold a county-wide safety forum. He says the committee should wrap up its work by the end of the school year.
GOVERNOR CUOMO PARTICIPATES IN WALKOUT, LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE
Governor Cuomo walked through the streets of Manhattan with students from the Leadership and Public Service High School. He also announced the launch of the "New York Students Against Gun Violence" website, where students can mobilize and communicate to Congress members and state legislatures about the need for gun safety regulation. Visit the new website here.
On Thursday, Cuomo said he’s hearing reports of schools disciplining students for participating in Wednesday’s walk-out. He says there was at least one incident where officials blocked exits to keep students from demonstrating. He’s calling on state education commissioner Mary Ellen Elia to direct schools to cease any disciplinary action. Cuomo says students and faculty have the constitutional right to express their views in a way that is not disruptive or threatening.
NEW YORK AND OTHER STATES FORM TASK FORCE TO COMBAT GUN VIOLENCE
On the state level, New York, along with New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Delaware, and Puerto Rico "States for Gun Safety" coalition. Together, the states represent more than 35 million people.
The states will share information about individuals who are prohibited from purchasing and possessing firearms within each state. Governor Cuomo says that will enable law enforcement to know if a person has tried to purchase or permit a weapon in a participating state. Arrest warrants, orders of protections, mental health conditions, or criminal history could be disqualified from owning a firearm.
The seven states will also direct law enforcement intelligence to work together to trace the use of out of state guns in crimes and share information in order to intercept criminals transporting illegal guns across state borders.
