Is School Violence a Local Issue?

For all the recent flurry of proposals about gun safety from Gov. Chris Christie and the Democratic-led Legislature, few have sought to change much in the places that have spurred much of the discussion: the local schools. 

The Christie-appointed task force created in the aftermath of the Newtown, CT, killings largely praised the steps that New Jersey schools and the state as a whole have taken in ensuring student safety.

In response, the governor in his package of gun safety proposals released on Friday said he would leave further steps to local communities to individually decide for their schools.

And the main legislative proposals have said much the same so far, with the most direct proposal from the Democratic leadership only calling for another school safety task force to further discuss potential steps.

“We were impressed by the substantial work that has been done on school safety,” said Peter Verniero, the former state Attorney General and Supreme Court justice who co-chaired the latest task force.

“That part of the equation is working,” he said yesterday. “That was the clear sense we got from the testimony, the hearings, and everything else.”

Still, there are changes afoot in many schools, and some tricky areas that the state will have to weigh in on, several players said, as educators try to stay one step ahead of the possibility of deadly violence in their midst.

For instance, districts have begun to at least talk about putting armed personnel in their buildings, and in separate requests usually reserved for academic or extracurricular programs, two of them won approval from local voters last week to specifically beef up security staffing.

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