By Adam Stuhlman, Staff Writer
HARTFORD — A newly established policy committee set up by Gov. Dannel Malloy after the Newtown School Massacre met for the first time on Thursday to establish guidelines, protocols and to meet with experts from Columbine and Virginia Tech to learn about how to effectively run and promote change.
The Sandy Hook Advisory Committee, chaired by Hamden Mayor Scott Jackson, was tasked with researching what led to the crimes at Sandy Hook, mainly to look at how attitudes and laws toward mental health and gun control influenced the shootings on Dec. 14, 2013 in Newtown by Adams Lanza, who shot 20 children and six staff members at Sandy Hook in Newtown. The shooting was one in a series of mass shootings in the United States since the 1999 school shootings at Columbine in Colorado.
The Newtown school shooting was said to be the worst slaughter in an elementary school.
The commission will receive information on the status of the Sandy Hook Elementary School investigation and then hear presentations from experts who were directly involved in the aftermath of the Columbine and Virginia Tech tragedies.
Experts from Columbine and Virginia Tech discussed what they felt would be the most important factors of the commission.
Former Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter was a member of the Columbine Commission established in 1999 after the massacre at Columbine High School.
“Your role is broad in scope, looking at mental health, healthcare, and emergency preparedness,” Ritter said. “Your audience will be the people of Connecticut, but the nation watches for answers as to why these events continue to occur.”
At the hearing at the Legislative Office Building, Ritter spoke about the challenges and difficulties he faced as part of the Columbine Commission and what the Sandy Hook Commission can expect.
“As a commission, we did not deal with gun access at Columbine, and we need to look at that now,” said Ritter. “We did look at mental health, but the need has expanded for both gun access and mental health.”
One of the challenges of mental health, according to Danbury State’s Attorney Stephen Sedensky, is the privacy laws surrounding it.
The State Police, which is conducting a separate investigation, “may have limitations based upon confidentiality but will look to give as much information as possible,” Sedensky said. “We may not be able to provide information on mental health issues.”
Sedensky also said that the State Police aim to have their investigation completed by June with a report of the crimes committed, unless there is criminal prosecution.
Jackson, who said that the first goal of the Commission is to research and establish guidelines pertaining to school safety, said a lack of the mental health records of Adam Lanza will affect the investigation.
“We do not expect access to mental health records for the near future,” said Jackson, “and this does not have to affect our investigation.
Jackson also credited limited access to information as something that could end up helping the investigation, allowing them to have more “unlimited structure.”
Professor Richard Bonnie, Chair of the Virginia Commission on Mental Health Law Reform and Consultant to the Virginia Tech Review Panel, drew upon his experiences with mental health reform from the murders at Virginia Tech in April 2007 that killed 32 students.
“Tragedy creates the opportunity for change,” said Bonnie, “don’t take premature actions that could erode the privacy and rights of people with mental illness.”
The Virginia Tech Commission was a program with a focus on policy with reducing the risk of gun violence and suicide on campus through “threat assessment teams.” Originally, there wasn’t really a focus on mental health, but this changed after the massacre.
“Tragedy sustains public awareness and nurtures public engagement,” said Bonnie, “There is the emotional sense of tragedy that every parent has with parents in Newtown.”
Bonnie’s suggestions:
• The Sandy Hook Advisory Commission must organize its activities to take advantage of public engagement
• Take a recovery oriented approach to the recovery of mental health systems and releasing the stigma of mental health
• Bonnie stressed that each Task Force created should have specific assignments and be flexible. With VA Tech, each Task Force had 10-15 people, and a focus on the public debate.
School Safety has been a major issue, and Ritter recognized that but admitted that the Columbine Commission requested no tighter security at school.
“We did not want to say that hardening the target was the only response,” said Ritter, “we did say that there may be instances when metal detectors are needed, but they alone will not make our schools safer.”
One strategy Ritter spoke of was the Colorado School Safety Resource Center, whose mission is to “collaboratively assist educators, emergency responders, community organizations, school mental health professionals, parents and students to create safe, positive and successful school environments for Colorado students in all pre K-12 and higher education schools,” according to colorado.gov.
They also created a “safe-to-text” initiative that allows students to privately text a school administrator an alert when they feel someone is behaving strangely.
Ritter, who is a gun owner and hunter, warned about having “false debates and fractional arguments of all guns or no guns, without moderation and agreement.”
Bonnie advised the Commission to think ahead about the challenges that will present themselves, and warned that the Sandy Hook crimes will expose problems in policy.
“The investigations in Sandy Hook will expose gaps in policy that should be addressed,” said Bonnie. “Think about the challenges that will arise when you try to bring about changes in policy.”
According to Bonnie, the priorities should be:
• Intensive and outpatient services/crises response services
• Crises evaluation and urgent care gaps
• People with no insurance and limited access to care
Jackson, whose brother is mentally retarded, said that the Commission is getting started to help the victims get over what happened in Sandy Hook by providing relief.
“You have to do something to help get over the event,” Jackson said, “This is our way of doing something.”
Jackson said that the first goal of the report is to establish strong guidelines for school security, and that while there is an interim report due from the Commission on March 15, as well as a State’s Attorney report due in June, there is no specific timeline.
Photo Credit: Bill Ritter, the former governor of Colorado, speaks Thursday at the first meeting of the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission at the Hartford Capitol. Photo by Peter Hvizdak/Register