School safety 2-prong focus

Panels talk, compare notes on where they are so far

The Joint Performance Review Committee, a panel of lawmakers in the middle of a yearlong examination of what it can do to prevent school shootings, met Tuesday with members of a separate commission impaneled by the governor to focus on the same task.

Among the topics the two panels broached were violent video games; security and school architecture; armed school officers or teachers; and a suspected lack of “morals” in the state’s schoolchildren.

Topics raised by lawmakers received even further consideration, said Cheryl May, the director of the University of Arkansas System’s Criminal Justice Institute and the chairman of the Governor’s Arkansas School Safety Commission.

Not included in the discussion Tuesday were proposals sought by gun-control proponents to restrict access to firearms by youths and the mentally ill.

State Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, the co-chairman of the Joint Performance Review Committee, which is looking into school safety, said in March that the voices of gun-control groups would be considered in the lawmakers’ study.

On Tuesday, Irvin said those discussions would occur later, adding that so far only lawmakers, not members of the public, have contacted her seeking to offer input on the matter.

In the meeting, lawmakers learned from May that the governor’s commission is meeting twice a month in anticipation of releasing a preliminary report in July. One of the commission’s meetings, May said, was held at Jonesboro’s Westside Middle School, the site of a 1998 mass shooting that killed four students and a teacher.

“We’re gathering a tremendous amount of informa-

tion that we feel is going to be useful overall,” May said.

The commission — which Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced he was forming in March after a fatal mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla. — is expected to release its final report in November, giving lawmakers time to analyze the results ahead of the January general session of the Legislature.

In anticipation of that report, committee members Tuesday asked May to look into the effect of violent video games on students and to determine if there was a link between school shooters and treatment for mental illness.

One committee member, Sen. Trent Garner, R-El Dorado, said he was “overall encouraged” by what he heard from May, but added that he would like to see the commission look further into an idea he has championed: arming schoolteachers. He said he felt that the commission was focusing too much on the role of highly trained, commissioned, school security officers, which he believes could not be used on a large scale.

“I think we have to create a different system so it’s more accessible to teachers,” Garner said.

Other lawmakers suggested that the commission focus on more abstract ideas.

“Is anyone going to figure out why our students are so angry?” asked Rep. Jack Fortner, R-Yellville, before going on to say that it is because students lack an understanding of “morals and consequences.”

“They haven’t been taught to respect themselves and others,” Fortner said.

Democrats, meanwhile, wondered if the governor’s commission planned to figure costs into any of its findings. May said the commission was not planning on doing so.

“I just don’t know if there’s a real plan out of this or is it just window dressing,” Rep. Michael John Gray of Augusta, the leader of the state Democratic Party, told a reporter afterward. He said the final report released by the governor’s commission should not make arming teachers a priority, “but every reasonable discussion should be on the table.”

The Joint Performance Review Committee will release its report on school safety in November or December, Irvin said Tuesday.

Sen. Jane English, R-North Little Rock, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said her committee also plans to conduct hearings on school safety.