Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Gov. Bob McDonnell's task force releases recommendations to the General Assembly.
- GOVERNMENT
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Tuesday, February 5
By Blake Belden, Capital News Service Gov. Bob McDonnell is urging state legislators to approve recommendations from his School and Campus Safety Task Force that would increase sentences for illegally buying guns, require mandatory lockdown drills at schools and establish more comprehensive suicide prevention programs, among other suggestions. McDonnell sent the General Assembly a letter outlining initial recommendations from the panel, which the governor established in the wake of December’s school shootings in Newtown, Conn., where a gunman killed 26 people, including 20 children. In the letter, McDonnell highlighted those recommendations he wants legislators to give the "most priority": 10 of them involve public safety (including …
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 …
Thursday, January 17, 2013
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, which 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 effort…
Monday, January 14, 2013
Group charged with evaluating school safety says it'll focus on experts and fact, not emotion.
- GOVERNMENT
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Monday, January 14
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. After a gunman shot and killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary, some …
Friday, January 11, 2013
Members tasked with reviewing, making recommendations about safety in Virginia schools.
A state task force designed to review school safety procedures and make recommendations for any improvements at Virginia's schools -- created in the wake of the December shootings at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn -- is set to begin next week, after Gov. Bob McDonnell named 45 people to the group Wednesday. Shortly after the shootings, which left 26 students and educators dead, Gov. Bob McDonnell issued Executive Order 56 establishing a multidisciplinary task force to review school and campus safety. In addition to several state legislators, law enforcement officials and mental health and safety experts, the task force also includes k through 12 and university-level educators and administrators, two students and the father of a …
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 …
McLparent
7:57 am on Sunday, January 27, 2013
NRA culture? How are kids and teens exposed to the NRA culture? Oh yeah, via rap music, movies, and video games. Does the NRA buy tv time commercial time during the super bowl? Think not. Put M ratings on video games? That just makes the kids want to play the video game more. Your kids can't watch tv without the latest violent movie trailer played on tv. How about Obama and Panetta glorifying … more ›