The Trump administration’s school safety commission will urge states and school districts to consider arming trained school faculty and staff and recommend rescinding Obama-era guidelines designed to protect minority students from being disproportionately disciplined in school.
The recommendations, part of a report released Tuesday, are the culmination of a monthslong effort from the Federal School Safety Commission launched after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
Seventeen students and staff were killed during the Feb. 14 shooting, which led congressional Democrats and a student-led movement of survivors to urge Congress to pass stricter gun laws.
The report lays out 100 recommendations designed to combat violence in schools, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos told reporters in a call Tuesday morning.
In addition to rolling back the guidelines published by the Obama administration in 2014, the Trump administration’s report will recommend states adopt extreme risk protection orders, which allow courts to temporarily take firearms away from people who pose a danger to themselves or others.
DeVos said the report is the first to examine how media coverage relates to the perpetuation of violence and will call for journalists to “be more responsible” in their coverage of school shootings. This includes by adopting principles laid out by the “No Notoriety” campaign, which urges reporters not to say the names or publish photos of the perpetrators of school shootings.
Additionally, the forthcoming report will recommend states “seriously consider the option” of partnering with local law enforcement in the training and arming of school personnel, DeVos said.
A senior administration official stressed that those on school campuses who would have access to firearms would be highly trained and range from mentors for students participating in extracurricular activities to custodial staff, administrators, and teachers.
Arming school personnel, the official said, can ensure that there is a more immediate response to mass shootings, particularly in rural school districts where it may take longer for law enforcement to arrive at the scene.
The report will urge states and cities to, in partnership with local law enforcement, begin a systematic review of vulnerabilities on campus.
The guidance from the Obama administration was aimed at addressing what some characterizes as a school-to-prison pipeline by urging schools to adopt alternatives to suspension or expulsion.
But the senior administration told reporters that the guidance left teachers and students fearful because individuals with a “history of anti-social, trending toward violent, behavior were left unpunished or unchecked.”
“The Commission is deeply troubled that the Guidance, while well-intentioned, may have paradoxically contributed to making schools less safe,” the report stated.
Additionally, the new report from the Trump administration warned that the guidance “sent the unfortunate message that the federal government, rather than teachers and local administrators, best handles school discipline.”
The Federal School Safety Commission, launched in March, is chaired by DeVos and includes top administration officials, including acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, and Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen.
Past administrations have studied school safety and issued recommendations, but the Trump administration sought to differentiate its forthcoming report from those of President Trump’s predecessors.
“This report is without equal — without equal in the last 40 years, without equal in the past 18 years in its significance, in its originality and its comprehensive review of the issue,” the senior administration official told reporters. “This report has no comparison to the past administration’s pamphlet that it issued on this subject.”
