PHOENIX — On Monday, education leaders and law enforcement hosted a safety summit to look for ways to make schools safer across the Valley.
The two-day event is hosted by the Arizona Business & Education Coalition, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and Arizona School Administrators.
"I hope this will create additional conversations and partnerships relative to school safety,” said MCSO Sheriff Russ Skinner.
Skinner said his department has seen a scary number of threats towards schools.
“We have a school safety program that’s underway, there’s some legislative measures that were passed and some funding the sheriff’s office received,” he said.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes spoke at the event and stressed the need to address teen violence in the state.
She also talked about pursuing new gun laws to help prevent school shootings.
“We obviously have the threats of school shootings still out there and I’m worried it’s a matter of time before we have one of those school shootings in Arizona,” Mayes added.
Earlier this year, Mayes tried passing a red flag law that would let schools seek a protection order against anyone who threatens a school.
The bill did not pass. However, Mayes told ABC15 she plans on reintroducing it again next year.
“It’s a very, narrowly tailored legislation that would allow us to seize a firearm for a short period of time when someone has threatened a school or made a threat against a school like the ones we’re seeing on social media,” she said.
Skinner told ABC15 he plans on bringing back the D.A.R.E. program.
“Even the old D.A.R.E. program addressed bullying, a lot of the other social issues that involve our youth,” he said.
He plans on making the program more modern.
“I look at it as an opportunity that we can get to some of the younger youth out there in the schools and help provide some educational guidance and some training,” he added.
Have a question ABC15 should ask leaders on how to make school safer? Email us at share@abc15.com
