NRA-Backed School Safety Review Recommends Arming Educators

WASHINGTON - A task force backed by the National Rifle Association has put forth a slate of recommendations to improve school safety, including a proposal to arm school personnel and train educators on how to police school campuses with the aim of reducing the response time during a school shooting.

Under the protection of armed private security guards at the National Press Club in Washington today, Asa Hutchinson, the director of the National School Shield Program, unveiled the panel's eight recommendations, including a proposal to create a model training program for armed school personnel: essentially resource officers trained in weapons retention, coordination with local law enforcement and battling intruders.

Hutchinson said the task force recommended arming school personnel, including teachers, provided that they pass a background check and complete a comprehensive training program.

"Teachers should teach, but if there is a personnel that has good experience, that has an interest in it and is willing to go through this training … then that is an appropriate resource that a school should be able to utilize," Hutchinson said.

The review not only analyzed practices already in place at some schools, but also examined how changes to technology and surveillance could improve school safety.

"We looked at the interior and exterior doors, access controls, architecture and design of the schools, and then we looked at the armed officers," Hutchinson said. "We believe that they make a difference in the various layers of security that add to school safety."

Mark Mattioli, whose son, James, was killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., late last year, praised the work of the task force and called on policy makers to put politics aside in the interest of the children.

"As parents, we send our kids off to school, and there are certain expectations, and obviously, in Sandy Hook, those expectations weren't met," Mattioli said. "I hope this doesn't, you know, lead to name- calling, but rather, this is recommendations for solutions, real solutions that will make our kids safer, and that's what we need.

"I'm putting it on you," he continued. "I'm putting it on the experts out there to do something with these recommendations, to implement solutions so people don't have to go through what I'm going through."

Hutchinson, a former U.S. Representative, U.S. Attorney, and Under Secretary for Border & Transportation Security at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, announced the task force's findings at a news conference in downtown Washington today, where he was guarded by a noticeable security presence.

"If you have the firearm on the presence of someone in the school that can reduce the response time, it will save lives. That is the objective," he said. "The presence of an armed security in a school is a layer that's just as important as the mental health component. If you have a mental health component without having other security, it's inadequate, and if you have the armed presence there without having locking doors, it's inadequate."

The NRA created the National School Shield Program last December in the wake of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting through its Education and Training Emergency Response Program. Since then, some critics have complained that the gun lobby has slowed efforts in Congress to enact new gun control legislation, including an assault weapons ban and universal background checks.

Rep. Mike Thompson, who chaired a Democratic House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, agreed that school safety is a critical element to reduce gun violence, but in a statement, he called for an inclusive approach to reduce gun violence.

"We should do everything we can to keep our kids safe, and that includes having school resource officers in those schools that want them, and urging our communities to develop safety plans in case of emergencies," Thompson, D-Calif., stated. "However, arming school personnel and training them for shootouts will only exacerbate problems."

The NRA reacted to the findings in a brief statement but declined to immediately endorse any of the recommendations.

"We need time to digest the full report," the NRA statement read. "We commend Asa Hutchinson for his rapid response in the aftermath of the Newtown tragedy, and we are certain the contributions he and his team have made will go a long way to making America's schools safer."

The National School Shield panel also recommended that states enact legislation to allow firearms to be carried by school personnel, schools implement an interagency agreement with local law enforcement to determine the difference between criminal offenses and routine school disciplinary issues, and an online self-assessment tool created by the task force where educators can scrutinize school safety performance and uncover gaps in their own security posture.

"This online assessment tool is available for any school, parochial, private or public school, free of charge on the website whenever it is deployed, and it will not be something the principal can fill out," Hutchinson said. "They'll be asked questions on access control. Are classroom doors kept locked during instructional times? Does the school enforce its visitor sign in and access control? Has a school staff been trained to question or challenge a visitor that's not properly badged? What actions are taken when authorized visitors are detected?"

Hutchinson also recommended that states implement education adequacy policies not to mandate what a school should do, but rather that they do something in terms of assessment and the development of an adequate plan. He also called on federal policymakers to improve federal coordination, which he said is burdened by overlapping and duplicative programs across the Departments of Education, Justice and Homeland Security.

"They need to have a lead agency and they need to have greater coordination," he said. "On the funding side, our recommendation is that the federal role is greater support for innovation, for technology and training grants."

The panel also put forward a recommendation for the National Rifle Association, calling on the National School Shield to transition into "an umbrella organization to advocate and support school safety across this nation" through a free web-based assessment.

Finally, the panel's eighth recommendation is to launch a pilot program on threat assessment and mental health to encourage information-sharing, produce a climate that reduces incidences of bullying and anti-social behavior, identify threats, and offer counseling support.

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US won't stop others from arming Syria rebels

ISTANBUL (AP) — Ending Syria's civil war through negotiations became an even more remote prospect Monday, as the main opposition group prepared to set up a rival government to President Bashar Assad's regime and the U.S. said it won't stop others from arming the rebels.

The opposition Syrian National Coalition met in Istanbul, Turkey, on Monday to elect a prime minister who would run an interim government in Syria's rebel-held areas. The election was initially set for Tuesday, but officials then said it might take place later Monday.

Setting up such a government, in a direct challenge to the regime, could harden battle lines even more and close the door to negotiations between Assad and the opposition.

The U.S. has been cool to the idea of a rival government, saying the focus should be on a political transition. Under a plan endorsed by the international community last year, Assad's supporters and opponents were to propose representatives for a transition government, with each side able to veto candidates.

However, the plan did not address Assad's role. Most in the Syrian opposition rule out any negotiations with the Syrian ruler.

On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the Obama administration wants to leave the door open for a political solution.

But concerning Syria's rebels, "the United States does not stand in the way of other countries that made a decision to provide arms, whether it's France or Britain or others," Kerry said, speaking in Washington.

His comments came after French President Francois Hollande said last week that his country and Britain were pushing the European Union to lift its arms embargo on Syria as soon as possible so that they can send weapons to rebel fighters.

The two countries are seeking military help for the rebels by the end of May or earlier if possible. Germany and other EU nations have been skeptical, pointing to the risk of further escalation.

Britain and France argue that Assad will not hold genuine negotiations if he believes he can survive militarily and that strengthening the rebels is the only way of squeezing the regime.

Kerry's remarks indicate that the Obama administration will not interfere with any country seeking to rebalance the fight against an Assad regime supported by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah.

The United States long argued that more weapons in Syria would only make peace harder. As the violence has worsened over the last year, Washington has tempered that message somewhat. It is now promising nonlethal aid to the anti-Assad militias in the form of meals and medical kits, and refusing to rule out further escalation.

The Syria conflict erupted in March 2011 as a largely peaceful uprising. In response to a regime crackdown, the rebellion turned into an armed insurgency and then civil war. More than 70,000 people have been killed and some 4 million of Syria's 22 million people have been driven from their homes by the fighting, according to U.N. estimates.

The conflict remains deadlocked, with rebels controlling large areas in northern and eastern Syria, and the regime defending its hold on the capital Damascus and elsewhere. Services have broken down in many rebel-held areas, which come under frequent regime attack by air-dropped bombs and artillery.

The Syrian National Coalition, largely based in exile, has wrestled for weeks with a decision on setting up an interim government. The exiles could have trouble asserting their authority in war-ravaged regions, and the risk of failure is high.

"Expectations will be high and means will be low," said coalition member Louay Safi.

However, Safi believes support for an interim government will grow if it shows it can deliver services to people in the rebel-run territories. "Anyone who tries to oppose it will be in a difficult position," he said.

All those attending the Istanbul conference said they oppose negotiations between the opposition and the Assad regime on the terms of ending the war.

"We've heard a lot about this 'peaceful solution,' but there are no positive, real steps from the regime, and the opposition presented its plan and it is clear that the regime was just playing for time," said Nizar Al Hrakey, another coalition member.

The election of a prime minister was initially to begin Tuesday, but conference participants said it might take place later Monday.

The coalition's 73-member general assembly is choosing among 12 candidates for the job.

Earlier Monday, the head of the main rebel group, the Free Syrian Army, lent his support to the idea of an interim government.

Gen. Salim Idris told reporters that fighters affiliated with the FSA will recognize the authority of such a government.

"We consider it the only legal government in the country," Idris said in Istanbul.

Idris also portrayed the FSA as the most powerful and organized rebel formation in Syria. It remains unclear, however, how many of the hundreds of rebel brigades fighting Assad's forces follow Idris' commands or are linked to his group.

Some of the most effective rebel groups are Islamic extremists who have developed their own support networks. One of them, Jabhat al-Nusra, has been designated a terrorist group by the United States and is said to be linked to al-Qaida.

Idris said his group has no relationship with Jabhat al-Nusra.

He renewed his call for world powers to arm rebel fighters, saying his group would ensure that the weapons don't fall into the wrong hands — a prime concern of the U.S. and other powers, especially given Syria's southern frontier with Israel.

"We have the power and the organizational capacity to control the movement of these weapons and keep them in safe, trusted hands," he said.

In Syria, meanwhile, three mortar shells struck central Damascus, the seat of Assad's power. The pro-government's Al-Ikhbariya TV said one of the shells fell in Muhajireen district near Tishreen Palace, one of three palaces that Assad uses in the capital.

Activists also reported that mortar shells struck near state security agencies in al-Barakmeh district and close to the Higher Education Ministry in Mazzeh district.

At least 26 people died Monday in fighting in Damascus and its suburbs, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group.

Also on Monday, Assad's fighter jets struck targets near the town of Arsal, Lebanon, according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency. The two countries share a porous border.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland confirmed that Syrian warplanes and helicopters fired rockets into northern Lebanon, striking near Arsal.

"This constitutes a significant escalation in the violations of Lebanese sovereignty that the Syrian regime has been guilty of," Nuland said. "These kinds of violations of sovereignty are absolutely unacceptable.'

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Associated Press writer Bradley S. Klapper in Washington contributed to this report

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