Saturday, January 26, 2013
Vice President holds panel with Sen. Tim Kaine and other leaders on gun safety, gun laws, expanding mental health.
- GOVERNMENT
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Saturday, January 26
By Katherine Johnson and Mechelle Hankerson, Capital News Service Vice President Joe Biden held a round-table discussion about gun violence Friday at Virginia Commonwealth University, saying “we cannot remain silent” on the issue. The discussion was closed to the public, but in remarks outside the panel he said the group reached a “broad consensus” that certain parties should be denied access to guns. They include convicted felons, those guilty of domestic violence and those who are legally found to not be capable because of mental capacity. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and Deputy U.S. Attorney General Jim Cole joined Biden for the discussion. Virginia officials …
Friday, January 18, 2013
Visitor access, locked doors, teacher training top list of policies teachers want reviewed, according to survey.
A group of Fairfax County educators say while some of the county's school safety procedures are effective, the system needs to reassess its security policies. In a survey last week on guns and school safety by the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers, one of the county's largest teachers' unions, 60 percent of the nearly 500 teachers who responded said visitor control procedures were among the larger threats to school safety and security. Enforcement of policies about guest sign-in, locked entry doors and whether students and parents were allowed to roam halls are inconsistent from building to building, they said. "Anyone can walk in and do whatever they want," one teacher wrote. "That's the scary part." In comments attached to the …
Educators don't support arming teachers or principals, but would welcome more trained, armed School Resource Officers "if money was no issue."
A group of educators from one of Fairfax County's largest teachers' unions says it doesn't want guns in schools, according to a survey released Thursday morning by the union. The union goes on to say security personnel "can help address a portion of the issue (of school security), but they cannot fix the entire problem." The results come after nearly 500 members of the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers responded to a survey on school safety and security — in an effort to make teachers' voices a larger part of state and nationwide conversations about gun control and schools, according to the federation's president, Steve Greenburg. "The issue of guns being brought to schools and the issue of making our schools more secure is a complex …
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Group charged with evaluating school safety says it'll focus on experts and fact, not emotion.
- GOVERNMENT
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Tuesday, January 15
By Whitney Spicer, Capital News Service Members of Gov. Bob McDonnell’s School and Campus Safety Task Force vowed Monday their recommendations on keeping Virginia’s schools safe would be based on fact and not emotion. The task force – charged with evaluating the safety of schools and campuses throughout the state – was assembled by McDonnell in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting last month in Newtown, Conn. “I thought in the wake of that terrible tragedy, it would be prudent to get all of our leading experts from all disciplines together to gather around a table or two, and talk about what can we do better,” McDonnell said. Follow Fairfax City Patch on Twitter and Facebook. After a gunman shot and killed 20 children…
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
In light of Sandy Hook shootings and ahead of Virginia General Assembly kickoff this week, union turns to members to get opinion on guns in schools and what safe schools should look like.
In the weeks since the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., politicians and advocacy groups have issued recommendations for how schools can try to prevent the tragedy — which killed 26 students and school employees — from happening again. A voice so far largely absent from those discussions in Fairfax and Northern Virginia: teachers. One of Fairfax County's largest teachers unions is hoping to change that, launching Tuesday a security and schools survey asking its 4,265 members about the use of guns in schools, where the system could use extra security personnel, how safe schools are now and how to make them safer, among other topics. "What I see more and more of is politicians posturing up and taking positions …
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Fairfax-headquartered group issues statement about preventing future tragedies after shooting that killed 28, including the gunman, in Connecticut.
After four days of silence, the National Rifle Association, headquartered in Fairfax, has released a statement on the tragic shooting in Newtown, Conn., saying it will make "meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again." In the release, the organization begins to explain its silence, saying: "Out of respect for the families, and as a matter of common decency, we have given time for mourning, prayer and a full investigation of the facts before commenting." Critics had called out the group in the days following the shooting: As citizens and legislators began to fall on either side of a debate about what, if at all, should be done about gun laws, many wondered why the group was absent from the conversation. Patch …
In wake of Newtown shooting, Gov. Bob McDonnell wants to look at all resources to keep campuses from kindergarten through college safe.
In the wake of Friday's school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has announced a state plan to review school safety in Virginia at all levels. McDonnell said Monday he plans to identify statewide and locality, school division, college and university resource needs to "ensure that we are doing everything humanly possible to keep our children, young people and educators safe while they are in the classroom." "Just as public safety is the bedrock responsibility of government, the safety of our young people must continue to be the top priority in our schools and our campuses," McDonnell said in a statement. In Fairfax County, there are regular safety and lockdown drills, and there was increased …
Virginia senator said his three daughters asked him Friday what he was going to do about school shootings tragedy.
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner wants to tighten gun laws, saying "enough is enough" in the wake of the Connecticut school shootings Friday that saw 20 young children killed and six adults. “I‘ve been a strong supporter of Second Amendment rights,” the Democrat from Alexandria said Monday outside the Virginia Capitol, where he was attending an unrelated meeting, The Washington Post reported Monday. “I’ve got an A rating from the NRA. But the status quo isn’t acceptable. I’ve got three daughters," the Post reported. They asked me on Friday evening, ‘Dad, what are you gonna do about this?’ There’s got to be a way to put reasonable restrictions, particularly as we look at assault weapons, as we look at these fast clips of ammunition.” “I believe …
Monday, December 17, 2012
Elementary schools lock all outside doors, police increase patrols after Friday's tragic school shooting.
Fairfax schools are taking extra precautions since the tragic shooting Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Conn that left 20 students and six adult employees dead. Fairfax County Police will increase their patrols across all Fairfax schools this week, Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Jack Dale said in a statement. "This is not in response to any specific threat but rather a police initiative to enhance safety and security around the schools and to help alleviate the understandably high levels of anxiety," Dale said. Fairfax City elementary school principals Adam Erbrecht (Daniels Run) and Jesse Kraft (Providence) reminded parents Saturday of safety measures the schools already practice to deter shootings and …
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Fairfax schools officials direct parents to resources, remind them to sign up for emergency notifications.
As news unfolded Friday from the scene of an elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn., Fairfax County Public Schools officials were directing parents to resources that would help them start conversations in their own homes. In a post on the schools' homepage Friday, officials posted links to the system's emergency resources and also offered some guidance on how to handle details of the scene at Sandy Hook Elementary School while talking with children. Parents of children of all ages should "try to watch television with your kids (especially during the news), listen for their questions, and answer them honestly," a PDF posted by the school system reads. It continues: Tragedies affect everyone, both children and adults. Children need to…
FairfaxMango
8:47 am on Friday, January 18, 2013
The President's comprehensive gun proposals, school safety measures, and mental health reforms represent a reasonable approach that protects Second Amendment freedoms while putting children and communities first. You can support these proposals by joining with the Brady Center, Million Moms, and Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and by urging the NRA to moderate its strident absolutist positions. more ›