Betsy DeVos Stuns Senate Democrats, Says Trump’s Parkland School Safety Commission Won’t Study Guns
Edducation Secretary Betsy DeVos told a Senate committee on Tuesday that the Federal Commission on School Safety, formed by President Donald Trump in the wake of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting, will not examine the impact guns play in school violence. The statement, provided in testimony, stunned many of the panel’s Democratic members. Perplexed senators who wondered how the commission could ignore the topic when it was a former student with a military-style assault rifle that left 17 students and staff dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February. “That’s not part of the commission’s charge, per se,” the education secretary said in response to a question from Senator Patrick J. Leahy, D-VT, about whether the commission would study the impact of firearms in school shootings.
“So we’ll look at gun violence in schools, but not look at guns?” Leahy shot back in response. “An interesting concept.”
“We are actually studying school safety and how we can ensure our students are safe at school,” DeVos responded.
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