Should School Safety Plans Be Made Public?

The Rhode Island Senate passed two bills Tuesday to improve school safety, but they also make safety plans exempt from public records. What do you think? Should these plans be made public?

School safety is on everybody's mind, especially after the tragic shooting in Newtown, Conn., which was deemed the worst school shooting in recent U.S. history.  On Tuesday, the Rhode Island Senate passed two bills aimed at improving school safety.  The first bill, 2013-S 0800A, introduced by Sen. Hanna M. Gallo (D-Dist. 27, Cranston, West Warwick), directs the Commissioner for Elementary and Secondary Education to certify annually that all school safety plans and school emergency response plans have been reviewed and updated as appropriate. The second bill, 2013-S 0801A, sponsored by Senator Gallo, requires all schools to perform a school safety assessment in conjunction with local police, fire and school safety teams within 30 days of …

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ThiNK Family

Reassuring Our Kids After A Heinous Tragedy

Dealing with the unthinkable aftermath of Friday's shooting massacre in Newton, CT.

Writing this piece in the aftermath of the unthinkable tragedy in Newtown, CT on Friday, Dec. 14 is eerily surreal.  To learn that 26 innocent lives, 20 of them precious young children, were killed in a shooting massacre in their very own elementary school is just incomprehensible. As a mom of eight kids, the youngest of whom is 7 and in the first grade,  I was stricken with immense grief and disbelief that sweet, trusting young elementary school-aged children as well as their devoted and loving teachers and staff who cared and taught them were so brutally murdered. A tragedy of this magnitude is horrific, but knowing that so many helpless children were the victims takes the pain and horror to a whole new level.  I am not a certified …

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