Sherrod Brown: “our amendment does not create a new government program or require new spending. It is a modest amendment designed to…”

“our amendment does not create a new government program or require new spending. It is a modest amendment designed to achieve a major goal, to reduce school violence. On October 10, a 14-year-old boy brought two guns to a Cleveland public school. He shot four people before turning the gun on himself. On April 16, a student at Virginia Tech shot 49 people, 32 of them fatally, before turning the gun on himself. The next act of school-based violence may already be taking shape in the mind of another deeply troubled child, adolescent, or adult. Parents send their children to school every day trusting that they will be safe. It is a crucial premise. And school-based violence shatters it. It doesn't matter that violent incidents are rare. The fact that a school, any school, could become a killing field is unthinkable to a parent, to any of us. Yet we must think about it. We must think about school-based violence so we can minimize it. There are no easy answers for a school faced with a potentially violent student who has not yet acted on that potential. Schools should and must respect the rights of each student while ensuring the safety of all students. There are no easy answers, but there are answers.”