Recognizing Safe Schools Week

Floor Speech

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Mr. FITZPATRICK. Mr. Speaker Pro Tempore, I rise today to acknowledge the annual Safe Schools Week. Safe Schools Week is celebrated every year to raise awareness about the importance of school safety and promote strategies for keeping students, teachers, and staff safe. This year for Safe Schools Week, I am proud to see so many schools in my district in Pennsylvania prioritize advocating for school safety policies.

As a member of the Bipartisan School Safety Caucus, I work with my colleagues to advocate for common-sense policies which center on improving the environment where our students learn and grow. We owe it to our students, educators, and school communities to prioritize their safety. Recent tragedies across our nation highlight the need to invest in substantive solutions to make our schools more secure, and I am proud of what is being done on the local, state, and federal level to ensure our schools are places of growth.

This week, it is also important to acknowledge the dedicated school officials, such as School Resource Officers, who protect our children. SROs are essential to crime prevention in schools and ensure that schools have a first responder already on campus in the event of an emergency. Beyond law enforcement, many SROs also serve as mentors in fostering relationships and reinforcing positive behaviors with students. Alongside my School Safety Caucus peers, I introduced the Strengthening Our Schools Act of 2023. This legislation would increase funding for SROs and ensure they have the resources required to support and protect students and school staff. I am grateful to the many School Resource Officers across Bucks and Montgomery counties for all they do to support our schools and communities.

In Bucks County, we are fortunate to have several school districts that have invested heavily in having SROs in their schools and we have many others that are in the process or laying the groundwork for an SRO program. The Bucks County school districts that have an existing SRO program include the following: Quakertown, Central Bucks, Council Rock, Neshaminy, Bensalem, and Bristol Borough.

As we acknowledge School Safety Week across the country, and raise awareness about the importance of strategies for keeping students and educators safe, I urge my colleagues to continue to focus on key policies to ensure schools have the necessary resources.

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