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Piccola Shares His Plan to Combat School Violence
with Law Enforcement Community
HARRISBURG -- Addressing
the annual Chiefs of Police Convention held at the Valley Forge Convention
Center, Senate Majority Whip Jeff Piccola (R-15) briefed today the chiefs on his
efforts to respond to the Dauphin County Grand Jury Report highlighting violence
and disorder in the Steelton-Highspire High School in Dauphin County.
The Grand Jury found serious
problems including the fact that school administrators failed to comply with the
reporting requirements of the Safe Schools Act and failed to work cooperatively
with local police to respond to and prevent violence in the school. As a
result, the Grand Jury called upon the General Assembly to take immediate action
to address the deficiencies.
“Since the release of this
report in early June, I have had the pleasure of working with Dauphin County
District Attorney Ed Marsico, chiefs of police throughout the county, and the
director of the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association to determine how we
can prevent the unacceptable conditions that were discovered by the Grand Jury
at Steelton-Highspire,” said Piccola. He is also seeking the input of schools
administrators in the effort.
“It’s important for us to
establish relationships of trust and constant communication between our police
and schools on a regular basis. This relationship will result in a safe school
environment for not only our students, but also our administrators and
teachers,” said Piccola.
Piccola told the chiefs that
his amendments to the Safe Schools Law will include a requirement that school
officials submit their violence incident data to their chief of police, who will
have the authority to verify the accuracy of the school report before it is
submitted to the Department of Education. “Based on recent discussions with
chiefs of police, I have been advised that this approach would be most helpful.
School officials were also receptive to the reform measure,” he said.
“The short amount of time I
have worked on this topic has afforded me a wealth of knowledge about the fine
work being done by your departments and many school districts in the area of
school violence and safety. I am committed to providing the tools our police
need to be more effective in their partnership with schools,” he added. Piccola
will be unveiling the full initiative later this summer.
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