Legislation passed in the House last year could provide guidelines for schools to identify students who could potentially harm themselves or others and intervene in those cases, but the measure remains stalled in the Senate, Rep. Michael Burgess, who developed the legislation, said on Newsmax on Thursday.
"Everyone knows who the troublemakers are or who is on the short fuse," the Texas Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "Kids who are in school, they identify themselves, and it's not like something that just all of a sudden presents on the stage."
Burgess' comments come as officials are still investigating the deadly shootings at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school that left 19 children and two adults dead. Burgess told Newsmax that his legislation, the Behavioral Interventions Guideline Act, was presented in 2020 and passed in the House in 2021, and may eventually be wrapped up into a larger law enforcement bill on the Senate side.
The legislation will require the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to develop best practices that will help schools establish behavioral intervention teams of experts who would identify any students of concern and address behavioral health issues. The agency must also help to develop a list of providers with threat-assessment training that would help school personnel implement the best practices.
"You do have to identify someone's constitutional rights," said Burgess. "You must not violate that … it's not to isolate or expel someone. If someone needs additional help, perhaps it's even something as simple as an undiagnosed disorder where someone has difficulty reading but to get the resources where they're needed to help those kids along the way."
As a result, some districts could determine that a "handful of kids" might need to be taught in an alternative setting and not in the classroom, or to help them before there is a crisis, Burgess said.
Burgess said there also could be a greater effort on the part of social media companies to be proactive when people who are threatening violence make their intentions known online.
In the case of the Buffalo, New York, shootings this month, the alleged perpetrator live-streamed the killings online, and in Uvalde, the shooter revealed his plans in messages on Facebook's messenger, according to company spokesman Andy Stone, but it was not clear who got the texts.
"You want to be respectful of someone's constitutional rights for free speech, but if they're signaling that there's danger right around the corner, maybe there ought to be a greater effort on the part of social media companies," said Burgess. "Once the crisis occurs, they have been pretty sharp about getting it pulled down."
Burgess also said that the issue of "hardening" the nation's schools may come up in Congress, but there is also money already out for schools through the COVID-19 relief packages that have not been spent.
"The dollars are sitting in the till so it's not a question of going and getting them from somewhere else," he said. "The money has already been fronted to the schools. It just has not been spent. So if that is a worthwhile expenditure, I believe it would be certain that is something that can be considered."
Hardening the schools could also include arming personnel, not only teachers, to protect students in the event of an invader, and Burgess said that idea "really ought to be looked at in a broader scale."
About NEWSMAX TV:
- NEWSMAX is the fastest-growing cable news channel in America!
- Find NEWSMAX in over 100 million U.S. homes via cable/streaming – More Info Here
- Watch NEWSMAX TV online – See It Here
- Download the FREE NEWSMAX App on Your Smartphone to Watch Now!
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.