Building on recent legislative efforts to enhance school safety across the nation, U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) on March 16 met with public policy, psychology, behavioral health, education and law enforcement professionals in Omaha to strategize on how to best tackle mental health issues and school violence.
Sen. Fischer said the roundtable discussion “provided an important forum to listen and discuss how we can be proactive in treating mental health issues and helping prevent tragedies,” such as the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where a teen-aged gunman used a semiautomatic weapon to kill 17 people and injure more than a dozen others.
Participants in the senator’s roundtable event included: United States Attorney for Nebraska Joe Kelly; Mark Adler, superintendent of Ralston Public Schools in Omaha; Mario Scalora, director of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln’s Public Policy Center; Sheri Dawson, director of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services’ Behavioral Health Division; Joe Evans, director of the psychology department at the University of Nebraska Medical Center; Matthew Blomstedt, commissioner at the Nebraska Department of Education; and Deputy Chief Scott Gray of the Omaha Police Department’s Professional Oversight Bureau, among several others.
Sen. Fischer thanked the panel members “for sharing their insights as we work together to save lives, strengthen our coordination, and increase reliability in our existing reporting systems.”
The roundtable event followed on the heels of recent legislation Sen. Fischer has cosponsored that aims to enhance school safety through improved training, early interventions and prohibited firearms policy.
For instance, Fischer is among 38 cosponsors of the bipartisan Students, Teachers and Officers Preventing (STOP) School Violence Act of 2018, S. 2495, introduced on March 5 by U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT). S. 2495 would authorize investments in improvements to school infrastructure, enhanced school reporting systems and coordination with local police departments, developing school threat assessment teams, and reauthorizing expired state-based Secure Our Schools programs that receive grants from the U.S. Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program. S. 2495 is under consideration by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, which held hearings on March 14 regarding the proposal.
Sen. Fischer is also one of 72 senators cosponsoring the bipartisan Fix NICS Act of 2017, S. 2135, which would close loopholes under current law that permit blocked individuals, who aren’t legally allowed to possess firearms, to try and purchase them without consequence. If enacted, S. 2135 would require federal agencies to alert states when such an individual attempts to purchase a firearm and is blocked by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) introduced the bill on Nov. 15, 2017 and it has been referred to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.
“Like all Nebraskans, I want common-sense solutions that will keep kids safe and help ensure weapons don’t fall into the hands of dangerous individuals,” Sen. Fischer said on March 8 regarding the introductions of both S. 2495 and S. 2135. “These are bipartisan, reasonable measures to protect innocent lives.”