Lead. A journalist weighed in on the challenges that arab and middle eastern female journalists face while reporting on stories in their countries. Watch tonight at 8 30 eastern on cspan2 and enjoy book tv this week and every weekend on cspan2. Next, a hearing on School Safety and gun violence. A house subcommittee and security officials. The parent of a skunt stild in the parkland, Florida High School student and lauren hogg cofounder of march for our lives. This is an hour and 50 minutes. The subcommittee is engaging the communitys respective on School Security. Good morning and thank you to everyone who is here today. The Sub Committee is meeting to discuss perspectives on School Safety and how the federal government can better support local stake holders in making our children safer. I want to thank the witnesses for participating in todays hearing. First we have miss lauren hogg and mr. Max schacter testimonies are ones the marine public needs to hear and ones that members of congress should take to heart as we go about our work. A special thank you to both for sharing your experience with us. The chair would like to acknowledge congressman deutsche who does not sit on this committee but who represents parkland, florida, has been a champion for measures to improve School Safety. I ask consent to any lou congressman deutsche to sit and question witnesses at todays hearing. Without objection it is so ordered. Im glad this hearing can build upon the subcommittee safety hearing they held last year in new jersey. The 2019, 2020 school year is well under way and our kids are at risk from violence every day. As a parent of triplets, all too often i watched the news and i am terrified by what i have seen here. Tragically, School Violence has taken the lives of too Many American children and educators. Now, 20 years since Columbine High School massacre, which left 13 victims dead, our children are still incredibly vulnerable while attending school. Since columbine and even before, our nation has been rocked by tragic siegle of School Shooting shootings. The 2012 sandy hook shooting left a staggering 20 children and six adults dead. Yet, congress felt short of passing legislation to combat gun violence in schools. In 2018, there were 24 shootings in k through 12 schools around the country, including this shooting at parkry Stoneman Douglas high school in parkland, florida, that left 14 children and three teachers dead and shootings at Santa Fe High School in santa fe, texas, have claimed ten victims. The threat to our students continues. During the first half of 2019, there were 22 School Shootings. Just last week a teenager was arrested in Washington State for planning to attack the schools on the 21st anniversary of columbine. Still, the response from the Trump Administration and Republicancontrolled Senate has been wholly inadequate. After parkland, Congress Passed the stop School Violenceing a to provide funds for schools looking to improve their safety and infrastructure. However, it is important to remember that School Infrastructure is only one part of the solution to keep our children safe. More must be done. In 2018, 113 people were killed or injured in School Shootings in the u. S. In the same year, at least 1,200 children were killed by gun violence around the country. Gun violence must be addressed both inside and outside of schools to really improve the safety of children in america. We cannot truly improve safety for children until we address these threats regardless of where they happen. That is why the democratically controlled house has passed or removed multiple peaces of legislation aimed at making our children and our country safer, including universal background checks and grants for states who use red flag laws. Additionally, i am proud that on april 1st, 2019, the house passed my bill, the class act. Which would establish a council within dhs to ensure the department coordinates its safety activity. I hope the senate will finally act on these measures as the American Public awaits a meaningful congressional response. Like the senate, the Trump Administration has failed to consider Serious Solutions to address School Safety. Last year the administrations federal commission on School Safety published a report that included no new proposals for federal policy or funding to make shschools safer. Instead, it promoted Arming School personnel. A policy that both students and educators groups oppose. Perhaps the only positive outcome from the commissions work was the decision to establish a federal safety clearinghouse, which the department of Homeland Security is leading along with the departments of education justice, and health and human services. This committee will be following the role out of the clearinghouse later this year. Im interested to hear from the witnesses how such a tool might be useful to them in their work to improve School Safety. Additionally, yesterday, the administration published a new planning guide to help School Districts develop and maintain and customize emergency plans while such guidance may useful for districts, it does not address the root problems leading to violence in schools, nor does it provide School Districts that are stretched thin, new resources to fill your School Safety needs. Our children are experiencing a new normal. And one that troubles me. Act or Shooter Drills are the new normal in schools. While i recognize the importance of them, i am saddened that our country has come to a place where they are necessary. We must do more to ensure that School Violence and shootings are a thing of the past and our kids feel safe when learning. We must do more to protect the next generations. This country communities like the ones i served and our kids are counting on us. Citizens from across the country are speaking loudly about the knead for progress on this subject matter and we must do our best to respond. With that, now i recognize the Ranking Member of the subcommittee. The gentleman from new york, mr. King, for an opening statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman. At the outset i want to commend congressman joyce on his dedication ever since the report before and ever since the tragedy in this districts. I commend you for that i have a fair statement. I was going to introduce this into the record. This is a vital issue. I would hear the witness own testimony for the record. With that, now i will recognize the chairman of the committee. She not here yet. Other members of the subcommittee remind under the Committee Rules, Opening Statements may be submitted for the record. Okay. I want to welcome our panel of witnesses. Our first witness who may be the youngest wherens to appear before this subcommittee is lauren hogg, cofounder of march for our lives and a survivor of the School Shooting at marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in parkland, florida. Although, she may be young, miss hogg is undoubtedly and unfortunately an expert on this topic. Aim thankful she is here testifying for her first congressional hearing to share her experiences. Next, we have mr. Jared mayfield, the director of new Jersey Office of Homeland Security and preparedness, mr. Maples has appeared before this subcommittee numerous times and i thank him for coming back. Next, we have miss Kathy Martinez prattner, who is the director of texas School Safety center, which is a part of the Texas State University and has been focused on improving School Safety if texas for the past 20 years. Lastly, we have mr. Max shot sh sh inshathner. He founded it after losing his son in parkland, florida. Again thank you for being here today. Without objection. The witness full statements will be inserted into the record. I now ask each witness to summarize his or her statements for five minutes, beginning with miss hogg. Chairman payne, chairman thompson, Ranking Member king, rank member rogers and members of the subcommittee, thank you all for allowing me the opportunity to give a students perspective on School Security. My name is lauren hogg and im a cofounder of march for our lives as you just heard, a junior in high school and simply a concerned student who just wants to survive high school, both metaphorically and literally. I hope that this testimony aids in your efforts to protect all students from owl zip codes and all races from going through myself and my classmates have in the wake of a School Shooting. I want to preface my shooting by saying that although i am honored to be here today i would not be here if not for the horrendous ehave ents that took place on february 14th, 2018 at my high school, marjory Stoneman Douglas. 34 of my classmate, my friends and my teachers and coaches were injured. 17 of them fatally shot with an ar15 in our hallways. Additional liss, although i am here today using my own experience of the militarization of schools, im here not to ask for your sympathy. Im here to ask for your consideration and your action. I was born after columbine and i was 9yearsold when sandy hook occurred. So for most of my life i have been force fed the importance of School Security. I still remember the first week backtoschool after the sandy hook shooting took place. I was in 4th grade. I remember spending the first hour of school watching my teachers shoes on the rainbow carpet as she tried to no avail what a code red was to a room of rowdy 4th graders. As lectureing the new security measures was, i never thought twice about them until four years later when my friend alena posed a question about why we were having the drills in the first place. In 8th grade, alena petty sat in front of me in our American History class. To be honest, we never talked about School Security in the context of preventing Mass Shootings until one day when our friend austin returned to school after surviving the ft. Lauderdale shooting that previous week. Together our little friend group contemplated the effectiveness of our School Safety procedures while standing in an ad giant corner of our classroom every three months. Nearly a year later, the three of us, as nervous freshmen on valentines day, when once again we went through the code red drill. The only difference is this time only two of us made it home. Alena was 14yearsold when she was murdered. The week after valentines day was full of many things, it was full of tear, full of funerals. Full of much talk around School Security. Ill never forget the first morning back at school. When we first arrived to the walkway into our campus, we were welcomed back by what seemed like every Armed Security officer in the whole county. It was truly a sea of black and blue uniforms. They thought they were making us feel sach. For that i am eternally grateful. But the sight of another man holding a fun was enough to make us sick. Our school, which once was considered a safe haven of learning by many of us was turned into a place of imprisonment. Additionally, much like our National Incarceration system, our school when flooded with resource officers that ironically were considered safety precautions became a place where my black and brown classmates were disproportionately targeted at nearly the le times the rate of our white students. Simply put, stools are overmilitarized made to seem like prisons, the idea that violence is something to be expected at school. That is no mindset for any child to learn in f. Following the tragedy on my high school, numerous individuals, including the secretary of education, look to increase the presence of firearms in schools. I as an individual and as a representative of march for our lives strongly oppose the notion that Arming Teachers will make our schools safer. There is a fine line between proper security and militarization. As you examine this fine line i urge you to understand those most affected. Students. Having me here is a first step. Students must continue to be consulted. As you examine that line, i urge you to consider noninvasive proactive measures, you need to invest in Mental Health resource, and trained Mental Health professionals rather than relying solely on active to those to suggest a solution is to hire more resource officers, let me remind you, that the harmed officers, sro did nothing as 17 of my classmates and teachers were murdered. The sro has been fast charged for child neglect. It was our unarmed football coach who provoked our my classmates and lost his life in the process. Furthermore, School Safety cannot be addressed fully without addressing this epidemic. Given this i encourage you to look into march for our lives a peace plan for a safer america. Instead of promoting certain punitive Safety Measures that i would describe as putting a band aid on a students bullet wounds, i ask of you to think what is actually beneficial to us students. I hope with all of my being that gun violence prevention legislation passed so we wont have to be having 16yearolds speaking at hearings on School Safety. Altogether when it comes to School Security, i wont have to hear students claim they were born after Marjorie Douglas and grew up where they were force fed School Security until they went through a mass shooting of their own. Us students are tired of being tired. Our future, the future of this country is at stake. The future of this countrys safety is now in your hands. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. I now recognize mr. Maples to summarize his statement for five minutes. Chairman payne, Ranking Member king, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. It is an honor to speak with you and share the work my office is doing to keep the visitors to new jersey safe, especially with regard to educational institutions. The new Jersey Office of Homeland Security and preparedness is tasked with Counter Terrorism resiliency and Cyber Security across all levels of government, nonprofit organizations and the private sector. We are charged with bolstering new jerseys resources for Critical Infrastructure and training and federal grants management. Attacks against children and staff and what should be the safe haven of education is perhaps the most jarring incident we face. Incidents at schools across the country, serve as stark reminders for those committing acts of violence, for example, Law Enforcement in new jersey with the assistance in delaware, pre send a shooting in june when we possessed a man at an Elementary School in westfield, new jersey. The safety of our children and those charged with our care are paramount. We must do all that is in es to provide students and staff with a sense of comfort and security in their learning environments and parents and guardians deserve the peace of mind that their children will return to them at the end of the day. For that reason, we are combining our resources to ensure the protection of our children. My office has worked to protect our students would not be possible without the strong partnerships we have with local, state and federal agencies. We are proud of the collaborative progress we continue to make as a state and strengthen security throughout all our institutions, including in education. However, we recognize that our work is never complete and continual improvement is the only way to succeed at protecting new jersey and the country. While we provide details on our ongoing efforts, please be mindful we will always continued to prevent incidents from occurring in the first place. Ofocus on prevention is key to avoid the need to employ response tactics. It is our goal to be first presenters as well as First Responders and make certain our communities embrace a c