Testimony of Kristen Harper, Director for Policy Development, Child Trends

Community on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations

The Parkland shooting is uniquely painful because it seemed preventable. This is the time for probing questions—What was done? What wasn’t done? And what might have been done?—that could have prevented this shooting. Kristen Harper offers three recommendations:

• First, anchor your work with knowledge of trends in school safety over the last two decades.
• Second, prioritize approaches that will help schools prevent school shootings, not merely defend against them.
• Finally, examine how recent school discipline initiatives have complemented the goal of improved school safety.

Read the full response below.