Panel sees no easy fix to shootings
Committee forms task force on school violence
SANTA FE — A key New Mexico legislative committee grappled Thursday with ways to prevent deadly school shootings — with security upgrades, law enforcement presence, gun ownership and even violent video games cited as either potential solutions or causes.
But top state education officials and lawmakers acknowledged there are no easy fixes to keep schools totally safe.
“Whatever we do, there will still be incidents,” said Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, during a meeting of the Legislative Finance Committee at the state Capitol.
New Mexico has not been spared from a national spate of school gun violence, with Aztec still reeling from a December shooting that left two high school students dead, along with the 21-year-old gunman.
The state has also had other school shootings, including a January 2014 incident in which a 13-year-old Roswell boy opened fire with a modified shotgun in a school gymnasium, injuring two fellow students.
High school students at dozens of schools in the Albuquerque area and elsewhere in New Mexico held demonstrations earlier this month, joining hundreds of walkouts across the country advocating for school safety. Those events were prompted by a shooting in Parkland, Fla., that left 17 students dead.
In New Mexico, lawmakers approved a bill during this year’s 30-day legislative session that, after being signed into law by Gov. Susana Martinez, will authorize up to $40 million in public school infrastructure dollars for school security measures over the next four years.
Specifically, that money could be spent
on card-swipe door entry systems, metal detectors, surveillance cameras and bulletproof windows.
But testimony from school officials, state public education leaders, top law enforcement officers and lawmakers suggested there’s still more that could be done.
Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, pushed during Thursday’s meeting for legislators to call themselves back to Santa Fe this summer for an extraordinary session that would focus on school violence issues.
He cited student mental health issues and existing penalties for those who threaten violence against schools — such an offense is currently a petty misdemeanor — as among the issues that could be tackled in such a session.
“We’ve got a problem, and we’d better fix it before the start of the next school year,” said Muñoz, whose wife is a school principal. “I don’t want to go to my wife’s funeral — I don’t want to go to my kids’ funeral — because the Legislature didn’t step up.”
But other legislators expressed concern about reconvening the Legislature without first having a plan in place, and the motion ultimately failed. Committee members did subsequently vote to recommend that a task force be created to further study possible legislation.
Measures to restrict gun sales or ban certain types of devices are also likely to draw renewed scrutiny in New Mexico, lawmakers said.
However, State Police Chief Pete Kassetas testified Thursday that gun control is “not very relevant” to the school safety issue, saying, “We can probably spend countless hours talking about it, and kids are going to die.”
“The only thing that’s going to stop a crazed shooter in a school is another gun — that’s the reality,” Kassetas said.
Meanwhile, Public Education Secretary-designate Christopher Ruszkowski said newer schools, including ones in Reserve and Farmington, are generally betterdesigned when it comes to ensuring student and teacher safety than older schools.
“There is a big difference out there in terms of safety of facilities,” Ruszkowski said. “You can feel that when you walk into a high school.”
He also said 17 of the state’s 89 school districts have not completed active-shooter training during the current school year.