Laxalt sketches plan
As students walked out of class Wednesday, Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt met with top law enforcement officials and educators to discuss bolstering protections at schools.
Laxalt’s law enforcement summit on school safety focused on schools’ existing security measures and active shooter response plans, how police and educators exchange information and how they can use analytics and background checks to prevent violence.
The attorney general commended school and law enforcement officials for working together on the issue, but said there’s more work to do to “harden” schools. Some ideas floated Wednesday included putting a uniformed officer at every school, working with the FBI on active shooter plans and creating a statewide data system for officers to see if individuals suffer from mental illness.
Laxalt said his top priority will be improving the Legal 2000 process, which enables dangerous mentally ill individuals to be placed on a 72-hour medical hold.
Asked about the school walkouts, Laxalt said he “applauds” the students for being active. Laxalt, the Republican front-runner in the governor’s race, said he does not support arming teachers but is open to restrictions on bump stocks.
Ramona Giwargis
politicians have proposed as a way to beef up school security.
At Valley High School, the “walkouts” consisted of three separate events at different parts of the campus that were addressed by six student organizers.
The message: stricter gun control and change driven by youth.
“A gun doesn’t matter more than lives taken,” said senior Mateo Beers, speaking to hundreds of students inside the main gym. “A gun doesn’t matter more than you.”
Beers and fellow senior Kyle Catarata read the names of the 17 victims in the Parkland shooting before encouraging students to take action.
“Everybody is going to look at you one day or another and they’re going to say, ‘No, you can’t do that. No, no, n-o,’” Catarata said. “Flip those words and what do you get? On. Like carry on. So when they tell us no, we carry on.”
While the presentations were occurring inside, a separate group of nearly 40 protesters held their own protest outside, linking arms and facing away from the school.
At UNLV, student gathered at the alumni amphitheater before marching to the campus free speech zone. Along the way, they chanted “Tell me what democracy looks like — this is what democracy looks like!” and “Hey, hey, ho, ho, gun violence has got to go.”
A series of speakers addressed the gathering, including faculty member Fawn Douglas, Micajah Daniels, president of the campus chapter of Black Lives Matter, and Annette
Magnus, executive director of the progressive nonprofit Battle Born Progress.
“For the first time in a long time, I feel like we are making progress on this issue,” Magnus told the students. “… The pressure you all are exuding is exactly what we need.”
Campus security
Speakers also remarked on the need to help make campuses physically safer. Located in downtown, Las Vegas Academy lacks thorough perimeter fencing, Principal Scott Walker. That means vagrants and homeless people often end up on campus.
For the most part, they’re harmless and leave when asked, but it is a security concern, he said.
It’s one shared by some students. Julia Dreitzer, an 18-year-old senior, said the random people on campus never really bothered her until last month.
“It never occurred to me they could be an active shooter,” she said, carrying a sign directed at NRA members that read “We will outlive you.”
Contact Amelia Pak-harvey at apak-harvey@reviewjournal. com or 702-383-4630. Follow @ ameliapakharvey on Twitter. Contact Meghin Delaney at mdelaney@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0281. Follow @Meghindelaney on Twitter. Contact Natalie Bruzda at nbruzda@ reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3897. Follow @Nataliebruzda on Twitter. Review-journal staff writer Blake Apgar contributed to this report.