School Superintendents Stand Together for School Safety

~Superintendents Stand Together for School Safety~

Today, our hearts are broken with the news of yet another tragic school shooting and loss of life. This is the 18th such tragedy over these first few weeks of 2018. Our hearts go out to students and colleagues, families and the entire community of Broward County Public Schools as they deal with an unimaginable tragedy. We are all together in extending our support to Superintendent Runcie and Broward during this time of tremendous anguish.

As is true on every school day on campuses across the country, we know that keeping our students safe remains our very top priority in schools, even before our critical mission of teaching and learning.

As School Superintendents and education leaders, we take the responsibility of student and staff safety very seriously. Our teachers, staff, and leaders are trained and safety protocols are in place in all of our classrooms and schools. Certainly, the actions of school staff have reduced the number of casualties during recent school shooting incidents.

These school efforts, however, are not enough to ensure the safety of our children. Today, we join together as leaders of public school systems to call for action beyond the scope of our own public school efforts.

As School Superintendents and education leaders from communities across the country, we demand immediate, significant action in support of our children. At the federal, state, and local level, we must see definitive action now from our lawmakers and persons in positions of authority and responsibility to ensure that our children and the staff who care for them are safe on every day at school.

Ninety percent of our country’s children attend our nation’s public schools. Ensuring that our more than 50 million children are safe to learn and grow each day in classrooms is a commitment we must make, a promise we must keep. Together, we have the capacity to solve this problem and to prevent future tragedies. We must take action. Our children are counting on us.

As Superintendents and school leaders, we call on our legislators, community, state, and national leaders to action today.