Delegates propose 13 policies to enhance school safety

Virginia lawmakers should consider implementing a number of policy proposals to improve school safety statewide, a group of three Democratic delegates said during a press conference July 11.

The three – Jeff Bourne (71st District) Schuyler VanValkenburg (72nd) and Mike Mullin (93rd) – outlined their proposals in a letter to members of the Select Committee on School Safety, of which they are part. House Speaker Kirk Cox created the committee earlier this year.

The three delegates recommended that legislators consider 13 proposals within four main areas:

• increasing mental health access within the schools to assist students who face mental health, academic, and social challenges;

• examining the types of security and discipline resources and programs provided to schools;

• enabling schools to interact with their surrounding communities so they can inform their choices about school safety, health, and security;

• reducing the access of minors to guns.

“We believe we need to look at gun policy,” said VanValkenburg, adding that there must be a focus on teachers and administrators as well in order to build safer communities. “These policy recommendations are not demands but rather talking points."

The delegates compiled the list of proposals after hosting meetings in their districts to solicit input from constituents about how to address the topic of school safety. VanValkenburg's district is wholly located within Henrico's Northside and West End. Bourne's district includes a small portion of Henrico.

The delegates suggested that legislators:

• impose civil and/or criminal penalties for improper storage of weapons that allows a minor to access them;

• require that private weapons owners report when those weapons have been stolen or lost;

• require that minors younger than 14 be supervised by an adult when using any firearm and that those 15 to 17 cannot possess firearms aside from receiving them as gifts or using them for sporting activities (exiting law applies only to handguns);

• develop a series of budgetary impacts to show local and state funding options for mental health counselors;

• consider lifting the cap on support personnel at the district level (so that school systems could hire more aides or others to assist students;

• consider a grant program to fund trauma-informed schooling as a way to handle policy enforcement in schools.

• consider enhancements to the way schools handle the aftermath of traumatic events;

• double the annual security grant fund for physical infrastructure enhancements from $6 million to $12 million;

• require memorandums of understanding between school districts and law enforcement agencies to ensure that school resource officers have additional training;

• require that the Virginia Department of Education and Department of Criminal Justice Services receive information about the school-based use of force, arrests, court-referrals and other actions by school resource officers;

• change state law to create protective orders for teens who may pose a risk to themselves or others, which could require all firearms to be removed from their homes, for example;

• consider streamlining state law to reduce the list of 40 acts that currently result in mandatory referral to local law enforcement;

• consider waiving a requirement that localities must match funding for Children's Services Act money when those localities can prove they're unable to do so.

VanValkenburg, Mullin and Bourne agreed that it needs to be harder for a minor to obtain a gun or weapon.

“It is irresponsible to leave a loaded firearm unattended,” said Mullin.

Mullin mentioned that after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida that left 17 students and staff members dead, he received hundreds of letters from students from his district who were concerned about school safety and worried that they might become additional statistics one day.

He suggested that by decreasing the caseload that school counselors and administration have for students with mental health issues, counselors could spend more time with those students and better address potential risks.

Kristen Martin, a mother whose children attend a public school in Henrico County, sat alongside fellow volunteers of the Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America to show their support for school safety.

“We need to talk to the communities and get guns out of the wrong hands,” said Martin.

Martin and Michele Cox, a mother who has children attending public schools, together wrote an article entitled ‘Get serious about gun control - by talking about guns,’ published by the Washington Post. In the piece, they spoke about the Virginia’s General Assembly school safety committee and the lack of initiative.

Martin and Cox questioned the motive of Kirk Cox in establishing the committee, which has held only one meeting since it was formed in March.

– Tom Lappas contributed to this article