WASHINGTON – The father of a Sandy Hook shooting victim came away from the Capitol Tuesday filled with optimism Congress will move on bipartisan legislation to prevent more parents from suffering a heartbreak like his.
Since his first-grader Daniel was murdered Dec. 14, 2012, Mark Barden co-founded the Sandy Hook Promise to train students and educators to identify troubled youth and get them help before they try to kill others or themselves.
Now Congress is taking up legislation to scale-up the program to give schools nationwide access to crisis intervention programs and implement anonymous reporting systems.
“This legislation will save lives,” Barden said Tuesday of the new bipartisan Students, Teachers, and Officers Preventing (STOP) School Violence Act.
“This is a part of what needs to be done going forward to protect our children, to make our communities safer and to prevent other families having to live the pain that my family is living and will forever,” Barden told the Post.
Unlike past legislative efforts after the Sandy Hook shooting, Barden believes this school safety bill will get done because it only tackles funding for school security, training and prevention programs. It avoids the politically divisive issue of guns.
“It enjoys bipartisan support because it’s about school safety…everybody can get on board with that regardless of your politics,” said Barden, who was at the Capitol drumming up support for the bill.
House Speaker Paul Ryan Tuesday met with high school students from Parkland who are demanding an array of action. While Ryan has dismissed legislation to arm teachers or ban assault weapons, he said “we’re looking at” the STOP School Violence Act.
The bill is authored by John Rutherford (R-Fla.), a former sheriff in the House, and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) is introducing a similar bill in the Senate.
Barden and Sandy Hook Promise co-founder Nicole Hockley met with President Trump last week at the White House and explained that their training program to recognize potentially dangerous kids has stopped school shootings and prevented suicides.
“This is a solution that is readily available to him (Trump),” Barden said. “I hope he is able to see this through so we can start saving lives on a larger scale.”