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‘Heartbreaking’: Parents of Parkland victims distraught when Schumer blocks GOP school safety bill

May 27, 2022 | | Print Article

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is facing intense backlash for refusing to pass a school safety bill named after two victims of the Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting that occurred four years ago in Parkland, Florida.

Named after victims Alex Schachter and Luke Hoyer, the Luke and Alex School Safety Act would reportedly codify into law a federal clearinghouse for school safety practices.

A clearinghouse is like an audit board, and so a federal clearinghouse for school safety practices would effectively monitor schools’ safety/security measures and offer recommendations on how to improve them.

“The bill requires DHS to collect clearinghouse data analytics, user feedback on the implementation of best practices and recommendations identified by the clearinghouse, and any evaluations conducted on these best practices and recommendations,” the bill’s text reads.

“In addition, DHS must coordinate with the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Justice to assess and identify best practices and recommendations and establish an advisory board to provide feedback and propose additional recommendations.”

The bill was written with the help of the parents of several Parkland victims, including Fred Guttenberg, who’s certainly no Republican.

On Wednesday, Sens. Rick Scott and Ron Johnson both called for Schumer to allow the Senate to take up this piece of legislation.

Listen:

But the majority leader rebuffed them, claiming that “hardening schools” (making them more secure) would have made no difference in the latest school shooting in Uvalde.

He also took to Twitter and claimed without evidence that if signed into law, the Luke and Alex School Safety Act would somehow lead to there being “more guns in schools.”

This refusal to even consider the bill left Schachter’s father, Max, angry and devastated.

In remarks made to Fox News, he called Schumer’s tweet “completely false” and said that the idea that the bill would “put more guns in school” is “ridiculous.”

“I thought that after 19 children and two teachers were just murdered in Uvalde, Texas, partisan politics will be put aside and that families might at least have some positive news out of Congress from their elected leaders,” he added.

“I was naïve to think that a horrible mass shooting would make people do the right thing. And unfortunately, you know, he didn’t. He blocked it. It’s heartbreaking.”

Scott and Johnson also slammed Schumer:

But Schachter’s anger runs both ways. He’s also frustrated with Republicans, who later Wednesday voted unanimously against a domestic terrorism bill.

“On the Senate floor Wednesday, Schumer said the school safety bill could be considered if Republicans agreed to debate on the domestic terrorism bill. A vote on the domestic terrorism bill failed along party lines Thursday, with all Republicans voting against,” according to Fox News.

“I blame both parties. The Republicans don’t want to give the Democrats a win, but the Democrats don’t want to give the Republicans a win either. And then who suffers? The American people. It’s ridiculous. They should do their damn job,” Schachter said to Fox News.

He reiterated this during a separate interview on NewsNation.

“I thought that partisan politics were going to be put aside, but I was naïve to think that that was going to happen. The Congress has failed us. The Democrats won’t give the Republicans a win; the Republicans won’t give the Democrats a win. And we just, we suffer,” he said.

 

Vivek Saxena
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