My heart goes to the families, friends and neighbors of Robb Elementary School

Dear Howard County Neighbors,

I wanted to take the time and also give you the time to grieve, reflect, and think about the event in Uvalde, Texas before commenting. My heart is aching for the families, friends and neighbors of the 19 Children and 2 teachers who were killed at Robb Elementary School, those who were wounded, and those whose life has been changed forever. I am saddened that it appears lessons have not been learned from previous school shootings, of which there have been way too many. I want to reiterate my stance that SROs are needed in our schools, and I will VOTE to keep them in our schools and expand their presence as necessary. I want to reiterate that portable classrooms are not safe for our students in any extreme weather event like May 27’s or in any lockdown, not an easy fix because our student numbers keep growing and our classrooms don’t, but I will work hard to expand capacity by requesting funding for permanent additions to existing schools. I promise you, if I am elected to the Howard County Board of Education, I will insist that all policies associated with school safety are evaluated on a yearly basis and lessons learned from other attacks on schools are incorporated into our safety policies, that each school is periodically checked for adherence to school safety policies and potential safety vulnerabilities are corrected immediately. In addition, I will work tirelessly to expand mental health services in our schools to support not only our students, but also our teachers and families and make these become a permanent resource.

All children need a safe, nurturing, learning environment where they can grow into caring and responsible adults ready for whatever the future brings. We can do better!