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WILBRAHAM With their teachers, superintendent and State Senator Gale Candaras by their side, students from Minnechaug Regional High School's model congress went to Boston this month to give testimony on two years of their hard work, Senate Bill 05, "An Act Relative to Student Safety." Six students presented testimony to the state legistlature's Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security in regards to the bill they drafted themselves with the support of Candaras and her staff. If made into law, it would mandate every school district in the Commonwealth to work with local public safety agencies to develop and implement school safety drills for non-fire emergencies including terrorist attacks, chemical spills, weather emergencies, intruders and more. "Lock-down" procedures would be practiced regularly and schools would not only be made accountable for practicing them but also for better communication with local first-responders for developing plans and strategies for several emergency scenarios. "It is extremely rare for high school kids to file a piece of legislature and make it to testifying in front of the committee," said Bill Metzger, legislative director for the senator, who has personally been working with the students on this since February 2006. The students strategized for months planning what they would say in their testimony to the committee, explained Gina Kahn, risk prevention services coordinator of Minnechaug. A critical part of trying to turn a bill into a law, this testimony was the one chance the students had to explain themselves and their idea before the committee made a decision on whether or not to advance the bill. "They were very strategic in their approach," Kahn said. "They organized in advance so that each student could focus on one highlight of the bill and it's significance and they were able to do this in about a 30-second to one-minute time frame." According to Metzger, the approach worked well. "With the Virginia Tech shooting and other incidences of violence, I would envision the Commonwealth looking into this and developing this into a statewide model," he said. Although the committee will decide their next course of action in an executive session, Metzger explained the most likely outcome will be for the bill to be sent to a committee to be researched and developed further. The other possible outcomes include the committee opting to amend the bill before passing it onto the full legislature, pass it on with no ammendments and changes or not pass it on at all. "Our district has been involved in a lot of safety initiatives in the past three or so years and in my mind this was as equally important," Wilbraham Superintendent of Schools, Paul Gagliarducci, said. "I think it is important that every school in the state has a plan in the case that a dangerous person might come on the school grounds." Metzger credited the school on producing students with the ability to grasp the complicated concepts and technical terms of the legislative process as well as the foresight to predict and manage the challenges they faced. "I think these students did learn that they can make a difference and it's not always easy because the legislative process is a long and a complicated one but it does work," Gagliarducci said. "They did get some excellent feedback from the chair of committee. He said they don't usually get bills of this significance from students and he promised them that there would be serious consideration into the issue." "It was a pretty powerful experience to see our government in action and to sense the potential of the students voices in being part of that process," Kahn added. | ||||||
