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Federal Commission On School Safety To Meet In Lexington Tuesday

Fons Cervera

Federal education officials will be in Lexington on Tuesday to hear recommendations about how to make schools safer.

The listening session will be the second meeting of the Federal Commission on School Safety, which was created by President Trump after the February school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 14 people dead.

The Parkland shooting took place just weeks after the January shooting at Marshall County High School that killed two.

Trump has pushed for “hardening” schools by boosting security at schools and arming teachers.

The commission is led by U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and also includes Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

An education department spokesman would not confirm whether DeVos or any of the other cabinet secretaries would attend the Lexington event.

Devos attended the commission’s first field trip at an elementary school in Hanover, Maryland, but the other secretaries sent proxies.

The event will be divided into three sessions — the first two will be roundtables with state and local officials, and in the third session the general public will be able to express views on how to improve school safety.

The commission is supposed to report on its findings by the end of the year.

People who want to speak at the event in Lexington have to register online and get five minutes to speak.

Comments can also be emailed to safety@ed.gov. The listening session will also be streamed online.

Ryland Barton is the Managing Editor for Collaboratives. He's covered politics and state government for NPR member stations KWBU in Waco and KUT in Austin. He has a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago and a master's degree in journalism from the University of Texas. He grew up in Lexington.

Email Ryland at rbarton@lpm.org.
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