Transcripts For CSPAN2 Senate Homeland Security Committee He

School safety against targeted violence. I want to welcome everybody to the hearing room. I actually want to thankour witnesses for taking the time for your testimony. And in particular i want to give a shout out to max and tom and your families and the other families of the families for attending here and for just your unbelievable dedication turning your tragedy into hopefully some positive action that can prevent tragedies for other families, its remarkable what so many of the families have done in reaction to so many of these tragedies which date back to about 1998 is where we had the first directed attack, numbers of 56. I know in your testimony youre talkingabout 710 shootings since columbine in 1999. Columbine, 13 people were killed, 12 students, one teacher, 21injured, sandy hook in 2012, 26 killed. Two were injured and parkland, at Marjorie Stoneman douglas school, 17 killed and 17 injured. Anthe death and casualty toll is simply unbelievable, quite honestly. I grew up in the 50s and 60s. We were concerned about nuclear holocaust. We hold drills and talk ourselves under our desk. We never had to worry about somebody entering our school and opening fire so this is a tragedy in terms of lives lost and people injured, the familiesdestroyed. But its a tragedy from the standpoint of the psychological effect on our nation, on our states and our schools and our children and our families so what im hoping this hearing will be about is just to take a look at the thoughtful recommendations of so many of these commissions that have been established afterwards, both and federal government with the help of parents and families that have experienced these tragedies. I want to ask the question to what extent do these recommendations, these commonsense obvious recommendations, to what extent have they been . Implemented and if they are e not, and i know they are not universallyimplemented, whats the holdup and what can we do to make sure we take some of these obvious , relatively simple actions as at least a first step to if not completely prevent these things from happening in the future, at least mitigate the casualties when one of these attacks occur but i think moving forward what i want the result from this Committee Hearing to be is lets again take a look at all the recommendations, lets find out what is common. What do we agree on . Its something this committee oodoes a good job on, theres all kinds of things gary is wrong about what this committee is good at doing is we identify a problem and figure out what do we agree on, whats a common sense solution we agree on. To kind of set the visions, the differences aside to be brought up when its possible to do so. I want to examine what are the most effective actions we can takethat we agree on. What are the facets and the easiest to implement . Part of that would be whats the most Cost Effective to question mark i go back to after 9 11, i think the most Cost Effective and the most effective actiontaken after 9 11 was we pardoned the cockpit door. With all the other security re theater and tsa and we spend billions but the most t effective thing is we hardened the cockpit door so lets make sure in schools where at least doing that. I really do, because this doesnt have a lot of legislative jurisdiction but there may be some that we can consider so we want to do everything we can do as part of this committee in addition to holding this hearing to highlight the issue and examine these recommendations so with that i will turn it over to senator peters. Thank you mister chairman for holding this hearing. This is an extremely important and difficult conversation. Theres no question that schools must be safe places for children to learn and to grow and every single life lost in a School Shooting is an unspeakable tragedy. As adults and as policymakers, our number one responsibility is to protect our children. And were failing. I want to recognize the many survivors that we have with us today, especially mister Max Schachter and tom hoyer for joining us as witnesses and thank you for your courage and your action t. I cant even begin to grasp the incomprehensible pain of losing a child to gunviolence , but i know that i must and we must honor the memory of those who are no longer with us by taking action to stop these preventable tragedies. Im grateful to you both and to sheriff gaultieri and doctor temkin for helping the committee better understand how we can protect children in our schools and work towards ensuring no other families have to endure the loss of a loved one to is senseless violence in schools. Strengthening safety in our schools is not a partisan anissue and i look forward to a productive discussion on the actions we can take to make cool rocampuses more secure, improve First Responder capabilities in an emergency and most importantly, stop these shootings before they ever happen. Todays conversation will be about solutions and we want to leave here with a clear roadmap for addressing this problem. But we cant forget exactly who we are doing this for. For alex, for luke , for the hundreds of children killed or injured in their schools. For the families, students, teachers and staff whose worlds have been irrevocably changed by this violence and for the billions of students who will be entering classrooms this fall. Thank you for being here, i look forward to your testimony and your discussion and mister chairman, my office has received 32 letters of support for our discussion today on a wide variety of topics and id like to enter those questions into our official record. Without objection, asked for my written Opening Statement at the end of the record, we have a letter from senator rubio entered in the record as well. I want to recognize representative congressman ted deutch congressman bob parkland florida. We obviously offer all of you are condolences and recognize how completely inadequate that is. We have a unique situation where your former governor, who established this commission and appointed and asked many of you to be involved is here and senator scott would like to say a few words to introduce some of the members of the audience. Ive asked him to read the list of those killed in the parkland shooting then we will have a moment of silence ti after he does that so senator scott. First i want to thank senator johnson and peters for doing this. What they said is actually really true in this committee, people do Work Together and work hard to get things done and theres a lot of issues to deal with up here. Theres probably not a more important issue than the safety of our kids and grandkids. And i explained sons and i think about their safety all thetime. So i want to thank all the witnesses for being here today. This is an easy discussion, it was easy to deal with the aftermath but nothing like what these families have done this february marks the oneyear anniversary Marjorie Stoneman douglas high School Shooting in parkland claimed the lives of 17 innocent victims. Theres not a daythat goes by that i dont think about that day. The amazing people that were lost at the hands of the madman. One thing that happened is any families i spent time with and you can just every day you still feel their pain. Id like to thank the families, students and loved ones for the victims here otoday. Tom, gina, bill and debbie, thank all of you, tony, thank you for being here. Lets go through a little background, alex, and by the way, if you can almost turn it and if they just gave this morning but you can go and see the pictures of these kids and you can, i can tell you in the last year and a half you get to know them just by all the stories you hear. Alex was 14 years old, he played trombone in the band at the school, it was vocal in seeking changes in school and served on the High School Public safety commission. Tom and ginas son luke was only 15. He was a sweet young man loved playingsports. His, a lot of these parents have been leading efforts to change and i was, gina was when we saw in the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety, she was there with you. Tony, if you stand up so they recognize you. Tonys daughter gina was 14 and a freshman at Marjorie Stoneman douglas. She was a member ofthe schools Winter Garden team, she was known to be a great dancer and infectious smile who made friends everywhere she went. Tony is the president of the organization founded by the parents of the victims and i attended some of their funerals and your heart goes out to all ofthem and gina, i should have had you stand up. Gina, i should recognize you but gina is toms wife and theyre just a sweet family so thank you for being here. Gina has become a good friend of my chief of staff. Phil, if you will end up. Daughter carmen wanted to become a medical researcher and find a cure for als. Shewas 15 or 16 years old, both phil and his wife april have been incredible activists nationwide. Thank you, debbie. Debbies husband chris was a loving father and he served as the Athletic Director and wrestling coach at Marjorie Stoneman douglas and made an impact on the lives of so many of hisstudents. And his legacy lives on with the essex scholarship which helps further the education of student athletes and this is a story about what chris did run and endanger a child without any ability to do it, no weapon or anything tosave these kids, its remarkable inso thanks for being here. So let me justread off the rest of the names. This is always been hard. Alicia our god, martin do k, current vice, to me gutenberg. Cannot longer in. What keynote loveour , ileana petty, i had met, actually met her family because after we had the hurricane, her brother was just up here the other day pass, he was going on his twoyear mission, the dad was working out in Everglades City to do cleanup and i remember meeting them before this, they were happy. Metal pollock, Helena Ramsey and meadowsdad has been, you see him a lot on television. And then peter lang. Every one of these families, its just a horrible story. This just wonderful family members that these families liveshave been changed forever so theres no question we got to figure out how to change this. Remarkable strength and dedication you all have shown in the aftermath of such an unspeakable tragedy is inspiring. As weve seen many times, solutions after tragedy unfortunately lost in politics. But theres a lot of reasons why this happened but we are through that in florida and nuhopefully we can continue together to make our schools taper. Sheriff gaultieri, we got right Law Enforcement officers and sheriff gaultieri to somebody on that after i got elected in 2010 becerra is, he is very dedicated member of the sheriffs statewide Sheriffs Association whos been dedicated in getting that legislation passed. But he is what we did was we put together a group of right after it happened, it happened on wednesday. By friday we had put together a group of people who Work Together, one group of educators, one was Mental Health, one group was Law Enforcement and by tuesday night we came up with what we thought we should do and by friday we made a proposal and fortunately we were in session so with three weeks we got not exactly what we all would have passed , some things were a little bit different but we had good legislation passed but sheriff gaultieri, hes got great family, hes a great friend and hes a dedicated public servant. I dont know how he works the hours that he does but hes shown leadership for our city when we needed it and its because of people like bob that we are at a 48 year low in our crime rate so i used the rag as customer, governor, youre supposed to brag as governor, we did 1. 7 million jobs and were at a 48 year low in our crime rate but i worked together to pass the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School safety act with the goal of preventing this tragedy again. The goal is d ithis never ever happens again. We established the commission to work to identify issues and they did an incredible job. Sheriff gaultieri led it but we had i believe it was 15 people or so on it but and ryan petty and another parent on the commission this commission did a good job and it put out good information and theyre still doing things that are going to have a positive impact so i think what youre all going to your today, youre going to hear about people that have really gone above and beyond to change things. Unfortunately you cant bring back these lives , but i think everyone of us, especially when we think about this we think about our children and grandchildren and we dont want this toever happen again in our country and i think its important all of us take responsibility to do everything we can to makesure this doesnt happen again. I was heartened about the report from the grand jury on the progress of implementation, Safety Measures by certain florida school. Its unbelievably disappointing when , im sure the sheriff will talk about this, when we have to talk about what we need to do and then you see people that for whatever reason dont take it seriously. They dont think its ever going to happen at their school. Today im sending a letter to school superintendent, Board Members and administrators demanding action, im disappointed in response im confident that when we talk about this a little bit breakfast, were not going to and i think the way thingsare going to happen , long term. A lot of us, all of us want. O be here we just cant have more important things than what youre going to talk about but this has to be a committee. Im going to have to go to Armed Services or a mandatory meeting area so i think for being here and mayou for your testimony and i think everybody, every senator up here your deeply at this doesntveever happen again. You senator scott, it would be appropriate if we would have a moment of silence in memory out of respect to those who lost their lives and for those whose lives have always been forever altered by these tragedies. It is the tradition of this committee to swear and witnesses so if you all and anthen raiseyour hand. Do you swear the testimony you will get before this committee will be the truth, older than nothing but the truth, love you god mark thank you. Senator scott said there are a lot of competing committee meetings, i know. Senator romney and others will haveto go out, dont take that as a sign of disrespect. Its just this place doesnt work. But anyway, harper b is mister Max Schachter, max is a cofounder and ceo of the school for alex, max has advocated for School Safety and security at the highest levels of federal government is his son alex was killed in marjorie solomon Douglas High School on february 14 2018 and i was trying talking to max before thehearing and hes got a rap sheet but it is , if you see the list of his activities, since he lost his son. Its just unbelievable. How much time and energy is devoted to this so max, i look forward to your testimony area. You senator, my name is Max Schachter, my son alex was one of 17 people brutally murdered Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School last year after i buried my son, my next priority was to make sure my other three tchildren were safe in their schools area and i traveled the country and came to realize that in all of the hundred 39,000 k12 schools in this country, each principal after now become an expert in door locks, access control, cameras, etc. But it made no sense at each school had to go and reinvent the wheel area the idea that crystallized for me was the need to create national School Safety best practices at the federal level. Those best practices will be housed on a clearinghouse website so that all schools are a onestop shop for all the most relevant and important School Safety information. I was pleased to see this idea highlighted in resident trumps federal commission on School Safety report last year. And i am extremely encouraged the department of Homeland Security is moving forward to create this house in fact, they are convening their first Meeting Library next week. We know that we cannot prevent the hundred percent of the school mass murderers but we know that we can absolutely mitigate a lot of the rest to students, teachers and staff when they do happen. Every school can do things today that can improve School Safety and many of these things are basics. That cost little or no money. Chairman johnson, i really want to commend you for your commitment to focusing on Tactical Solutions can save lives right now. And for shining the spotlight on that through this hearing that youre holding today. Ri there are two main reasons the National School Security Prices as continued with no end in sight. The first is that we do not dimplement lessons that we have been painfully learning for two decades and two, we are not being honest to parents and communities about the real situation with safety in our schools. On the first point, we do not implement Lessons Learned from dozens of incidents that have tragically taken many, many lives. The state of virginia is a rare exception. After the Virginia Tech massacre, virginia implementedassessment teams and