Booker, Kaine, Gillibrand Lead Colleagues in Urging Education Department to Focus on School Safety, Not Scapegoats

Statement

U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Tim Kaine (D-VA), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) led nine of their colleagues in urging the Department of Education to focus more on tangible ways to prevent gun violence in schools, instead of blaming last month's shooting in Parkland, Florida on a 2014 directive on school discipline. That directive encouraged schools to examine disparities in discipline rates in an effort to prevent potentially discriminatory discipline policies.

"As the work of the Federal Commission on School Safety begins, we write to urge you to focus on meaningful reforms to improve gun safety and prevent gun violence, instead of focusing on distractions that will take us backwards," the Senators wrote in a letter to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. "Examining and potentially revoking the 2014 Dear Colleague Letter on the Nondiscriminatory Administration of School Discipline will not address issues of gun violence and instead will leave schools less informed and without guidance on how to uphold the civil rights of students of color and students with disabilities while administering school discipline."

"Rather than blame the 2014 [Dear Colleague letter], we should be addressing our lax system of background checks and minimum age for firearm purchase, both of which allow too many mass shooters to gain access to weapons of war," the Senators added.

Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Edward Markey (D-MA), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), and Michael Bennet (D-CO) also signed onto the letter.

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