By Web Staff
Newtown, CT (WFSB) — The final draft from the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission was released on Thursday, which offers recommendations to try to prevent another mass school shooting.
The nearly 300-page report is a compilation of the proposals and recommendations drafted by the commission after 26 people, including 20 first-graders, were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Dec. 14, 2012. It contains recommendations for school safety, mental health and law enforcement.
The report features more than two years of information and was written after more than 100 people faced the commission. There were interviews with the families of the victims and the teachers’ union.
There are three sections with the first part focusing on school design and operations, the second on recommendations for law enforcement and the third is on mental health.
There were 22 recommendations were discussed by the commission in the school design section. Here are some of them:
All exterior doors in K-12 schools be equipped with hardware capable of implementing a full perimeter lockdown.
Standard requiring classroom and other safe-haven areas to have doors that can be locked from the inside.
Custodians should be included as members of school security and safety committees.
Study should be conducted to develop additional safety standards concerning the issuance of classroom keys to substitute teachers.
At school, a permanent committee looks into school safety procedures.
Architect licensed in the State of Connecticut should be among the members of the School Safety Infrastructure Council.
Each school shall maintain an accurate list of faculty, staff and students, complete with emergency contact information.
Each school shall provide safety and security training for faculty, staff and students.
Each school should have wardens to manage safety and security strategies
There were 30 recommendations discussed by the commission in the law enforcement section. Here are some of them:
Background checks should be mandatory on the sale or transfer of any firearm.
Firearms permits should be required to be renewed on a regular basis.
Commission will institute a ban on the sale, possession, or use of any magazine or ammunition feeding device in excess of 10 rounds except for military and police use.
Evaluate best practices for determining the regulation or prohibition of the sale and purchase of ammunition via the internet.
Any person seeking a license to sell, purchase or carry any type of firearm in the state should be required to pass a suitability screening process.
Require that any shell casing for ammunition sold or possessed in Connecticut have a serial number laser etched on it for tracing purposes.
There were several recommendations discussed by the commission in the mental health section. Here are some of them:
Connecticut must build a mental health system that targets detection and treatment while building stronger, resilient communities of care.
Addressing a fragmented and underfunded behavioral health system tainted by stigma
Recognizing that mental health is more than the absence of mental illness
Providers should be incentivized through reimbursement mechanisms to integrate both physical and mental health services.
Social-emotional learning must form an integral part of the curriculum from preschool through high school.
Schools must play a critical role in fostering healthy child development and healthy communities.
A sequenced social development curriculum must include anti-bullying strategies.
Schools should form multidisciplinary risk-assessment teams that gather information on and respond supportively to children.
The commission still needs to vote on this draft before making it final. That is expected to take place on Friday during the commission’s last working meeting.
Once finalized, the report will be presented to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. That date has not been set.
Even though the final working meeting for the commission is on Friday, it will not be their final meeting.
Mark Barden, whose son Daniel was killed in the shooting, said “we hope lawmakers can glean something useful from the report to make Connecticut safer,” and hopefully stop another tragedy like the shooting to happen again.
Dr. Hank Schwartz, a psychiatrist on the panel, said one of his concerns is that the state will not act on what has been learned.
