By Dave Dahl
SPRINGFIELD – State lawmakers and one of the big teachers’ unions in the state are arm-in-arm on a new proposal to try to make schools safer.
Legislation – still being drawn up – would crack down on school districts which do not follow security mandates. And it’s easy for State Rep. Fred Crespo (D-Hoffman Estates) to see how school leaders in Oxford Township, Mich., where four students were gunned down, dropped the ball.
“A teacher found a note that the student had drawn with images of a gun, a person who had been shot, and a laughing emoji, and the words blood everywhere and help me. And a teacher saw that note,” Crespo told an online news conference.
The day before the shooting, a teacher saw the student searching for ammunition for guns while in class,” Crespo continued, “and the guidance counselors sent him back to class after the teacher observed his violent drawings. His belongings were not searched for weapons.”
Student Ethan Crumbley is accused in that case.
State Rep. Tony McCombie (R-Savanna) said family services need to be emphasized. “We have a lot of wraparound services,” she said. “There needs to be something possibly at the home. Just expelling the child probably isn’t going to be an answer.”
Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]
