In response to the events in Newtown, the General Assembly took on legislation overhauling the consideration and adoption of school safety plans. Unfortunately, the legislation exempts all school safety plan documents from release under the Access to Public Records Act, and allows school committees to discuss those plans in complete secrecy. The ACLU testified that this exemption would leave parents in the dark about what schools were doing to protect their children, reversing a decade of statutory transparency that began in the wake of the Columbine shootings. Without public input, the ACLU argued, schools would be more likely to adopt flawed school safety plans, and parents would be unable to determine if schools were meeting safety standards. The House passed this legislation in April (H 5941A), with the Senate following suit in May (S 801B).
As if that weren’t bad enough, the General Assembly went on to approve a supplemental bill further exempting from public disclosure any school district documents used to protect students from any undefined “potential and actual threats.” Thus, school emergency plans in the event of a fire or hurricane will now be kept secret. The ACLU asked the Governor to veto this legislation, along with Common Cause and other groups. Those requests for a veto went unheeded.
