White House to help arm school staff – officials

In this photo February 22, 2018, President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with state and local officials to discuss school safety in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. (Photo by EVAN VUCCI /AP FILE PHOTO)

The administration of United States President Donald Trump will step up aid to states that want to arm school employees under a plan to increase campus safety after the killing of 17 people in Florida, officials said on Sunday.

The controversial idea to put weapons in schools, which has drawn little support from educators, is part of a “pragmatic plan to dramatically increase school safety and to take steps to do so right away,” Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said in a conference call with reporters.

Among other steps, DeVos said she will chair a federal commission on school safety.

Trump is also urging Congress to pass legislation that will strengthen background checks and implement violence prevention programs.

The Trump administration will provide technical assistance to states preparing temporary “risk protection orders” that allow for guns to be removed from certain individuals, and there will be a focus on mental health care, said Andrew Bremberg, a presidential assistant who heads the Domestic Policy Council.

The measures come during a reignited national gun control debate revived by survivors of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 14 students and three staff were gunned down by a man with a semi-automatic rifle in February.

“The administration will be working with states to provide rigorous firearms training to specifically qualified volunteer school personnel,” Bremberg said.

Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the National Education Association (NEA), the largest professional union in the US, has said that parents and educators “overwhelmingly reject the idea of arming school staff.”              /kga