LOST IN TRANSLATION

Advocates Frustrated by Betsy DeVos’ School Safety Commission

Education groups were at the commission’s most recent meeting, but they were “not asked to participate.”

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ federal commission on school safety, formed in March in response to the Parkland shooting, is reportedly not hearing out nor reaching out to the proper “stakeholders in the conversation about how to keep schools safe,” according to Vice News. The commission was supposed to have its second meeting Thursday afternoon, but invitations were reportedly sent out Wednesday evening—meaning that “few participants could make it.” Education organization representatives were among those who could attend, but “they were not asked to participate” and the commission only heard from experts, survivors, and parents. As 10 school shootings have occurred since the Parkland shooting—including Friday’s shooting in Texas that killed 10—groups are concerned that the commission is not “meaningfully engag[ing] stakeholders in the field” to have conversations about school safety. The Education Department said it plans on holding meetings nationwide during the summer and fall with a “full report expected by the end of the year[.]”