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Suthers reveals plans to form U.S. panel to study school safety

Task force would focus on ways to prevent violence

April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 11, 2007 at midnight

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Colorado Attorney General John Suthers unveiled plans Thursday for a national task force to examine school safety and mental health issues.

The task force will likely be composed of attorneys general across the nation and focus on violence prevention at schools and university campuses.

Suthers' renewed interest in school safety follows reports that the Virginia Tech gunman was found to be a danger to himself and was ordered to get mental health treatment months before his rampage.

"School safety remains a high priority of ours." Suthers said, adding, "We don't want to interfere in the efforts going on in Virginia."

"We're going to look at all levels of schools. There will be emphasis on mental health issues and threat assessments and on communication . . . and what to do about it."

Suthers said the AGs are simply reviving a task force created in 1999 following Columbine and updating its report and recommendations on school safety.

Possible recommendations from the task force could include:

• Requiring schools and college campuses to put in place an automated telephone, or reverse 911 system, which would swiftly alert students of a threat.

• Barring people found to be dangerous and ordered to get mental health treatment from buying guns.

Suthers' comments came during a news conference in which he boasted that all five of his legislative initiatives sailed through the General Assembly, including a bill to allow grocery stores to sell discounted gasoline.

Also on his list: a bill that makes it a crime to steal from the elderly and disabled, another that requires sexual predators to register their e-mail accounts, and a bill making it a crime for mortgage brokers to submit false real estate appraisals.

He also received $1.9 million from the legislature to fund an ongoing lawsuit against Shell Oil Co. and the U.S. Army regarding contamination of groundwater at Rocky Mountain Arsenal.

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