LAS VEGAS (AP) — A school safety task force created by Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval in the wake of a school shooting in Florida began its work Thursday to study what the state can do to improve student safety and reduce the risks of gun violence.
The 25-member committee's first meeting included presentations from the state Department of Education, Division of Emergency Management and a group of high school students, who told the task force that schools need more law enforcement officers, social workers, social and emotional learning programs and improved facilities.
Dale Erquiaga, the president and CEO of the nonprofit group Communities in Schools and a former state superintendent of instruction in Nevada, leads the task force. Erquiaga said Thursday that he will split the task force into two groups, with one group focusing on safety and the other looking at student well-being.
Sandoval, who created the board by executive order in March, told the group that their recommendations, due by August, will inform the state Legislature when they meet for their biennial session next year.
Sandoval leaves office before the session starts in February so the new governor elected this November will control whether any of the task force's proposals are in the budget or move to the Legislature, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Erquiaga told the Reno Gazette-Journal that the toughest day of his career was Oct. 21, 2013, when a 12-year-old student at Sparks Middle School brought a gun to school and opened fire on a playground. Jose Reyes fatally shot Sparks Middle School teacher Michael Landsberry and injured two classmates before turning the gun on himself.
Brianne Thoreson, a task force member and the principal of Bishop Manogue High School in Reno, has personal experience with mass shootings to draw on.
She's one of the survivors of the Oct. 1 shooting at a Las Vegas country music festival where a gunman killed 58 people and injured hundreds.
Thoreson, who had to run for her life as bullets rained overhead, said Thursday that "To know that kids have to live with this as part of their life is hard."