Here & Now

Madison Superintendent On School Walkouts, Walker Bills

Frederica Freyberg:

Governor Scott Walker late this week called a special session of the legislature to take up his school safety plan. The plan includes an Office of School Safety within the state Department of Justice, which would apply $100 million worth of grants for schools to make security improvements, hire officers and conduct training. The plan would require mandatory reporting of any threats of school violence and ensure that live video streams of schools can be shared with law enforcement, among other prongs. This executive order calling for the special session came one day after a nationwide walk-out on the part of school students over gun violence. Wisconsin students joined the national “youth empower” call for gun control on Wednesday. Wisconsin was represented by schools from dozens of cities and towns across the state, from Milwaukee to Ashland, in Wausau and La Crosse, in Green Bay, Eau Claire, Rhinelander and Viroqua, among many others. “Here and Now” reporter Marisa Wojcik covered the story at the State Capitol.

Crowd:

Gun control now!

Marisa Wojcik:

On Wednesday, March 14, thousands of Madison students joined a national movement to send a message about gun control. A team of teenagers from the city’s four high schools coordinated the Madison walk-out. They headed down East Washington Avenue and ended at the State Capitol. Despite the healthy rivalry between these schools, the need to send a message about guns brought them together.

Caitlin Houck-King:

We are the generation to put — to start putting an end to this. I think the more students we have, the more united we are and that’s exactly what we need right now. We need unity amongst every student because everyone wants to feel safe.

Marisa Wojcik:

School administrators worked with the students to ensure their safety during the walk-out.

Crowd:

This is what democracy looks like.

Marisa Wojcik:

The Madison East High School principal always encourages students to stay in school, but he says he takes pride in the activism of students.

Female student:

We don’t need your apologies. We need you to change the policies.

[cheers and applause]

Marisa Wojcik:

The youth organizers underscored that change needs to happen with their vote.

Female student:

There's a voter registration booth on site. Volunteers from Dane County Voter ID Coalition, Indivisible Madison and the ACLU are here right now registering voters and answering questions about voter ID laws.

Lydia Hester:

The students are not going to stop until there is change. And even if it takes a few years, like we’ll be at the polls soon enough. I’ll be able to vote the next presidential election. And it’s just such a powerful thing for student voices to be out here because we are the next generation.

Crowd:

Gun control now!

Marisa Wojcik:

Last year, Democrats introduced a slew of bills in the state legislature addressing specific gun control laws. But not much action has been taken on these bills.

Male student:

We are the future!

Marisa Wojcik:

Governor Scott Walker on Thursday announced his own legislation, funding increased safety on campuses. However, it did not address gun restrictions. The students hand-delivered a letter to the governor’s office with five demands: universal background checks, raising the minimum age to buy rifles, banning bump stocks, limiting magazine capacity and making gun safety training more accessible.

Emma Falk:

I truly believe that like we can get people in office that — you know, that our voices and our new generation is really going to make that difference in the polls.

Marisa Wojcik:

The student organizers are determined that if the current legislature can’t get it done, they’ll find others who will.

[cheers and applause]

Frederica Freyberg:

That was Marisa Wojcik reporting. From students to teachers and administrators. What is the response to the student action and the governor’s call for school safety? We turn now to the Superintendent of Madison Schools, Jennifer Cheatham, for her take. And thanks very much for being here.

Jennifer Cheatham:

I'm happy to be here.

Frederica Freyberg:

So what is your reaction to some 3,000 students, most of them from your school district, taking part in the walk-out and march over gun safety?

Jennifer Cheatham:

I've got to tell you, I am incredibly proud of the youth. I feel strongly. I know our school board does and the educators in Madison, that we’re preparing students to graduate from high school, ready for college, career and full participation in their community. And we think this is an example of students becoming college, career and community-ready. They have an opinion. They want to voice their opinion. And I'm proud of their participation.

Frederica Freyberg:

So my next question was whether or not the Madison School District sanctioned this action and it would sound as though you do.

Jennifer Cheatham:

I think it’s a little more nuanced than that. We sanction student voice. It is a core value of our school district. And it’s important to know that we didn’t organize the event. And by no means did we do so. We always encourage students to stay in school, and we did. And we communicated with parents, if their child chooses to participate in a demonstration of any sort, we want to make sure that they’re communicating with their children, making plans so that children are doing so safely.

Frederica Freyberg:

What is your overall reaction to the governor’s school safety plan?

Jennifer Cheatham:

You know, that’s a great question. I am glad to see that he’s proposed something. I think that’s very positive. And I don’t think it yet gets to where we need it to be. I think a couple of concerns that I have are the one-time funding. School districts are continually working on safety and security measures. It’s not something we do once. We do it continually, which means a continual investment. So it concerns me that the proposal is for one-time funding. I’d like to see a commitment to ongoing funding for safety and security.

Frederica Freyberg:

Do you have a number in mind that your district would need to make itself secure going forward?

Jennifer Cheatham:

That's a great question. No, I don’t. But I think it would be interesting to see a per-pupil amount that was ongoing to support safety and security measures and for school districts to be able to flexibly use those funds to align our safety and security practices to best practices.

Frederica Freyberg:

So his plan would include these grants, as you say, to make security improvements and hire resource officers. What does your district need in terms of those kinds of enhancements?

Jennifer Cheatham:

That's a great question. There are several kind of components of safety and security. There are facilities investments. We want to make sure that teachers, for example, can secure their doors, you know, if there were to be a threat in a school. We want to make sure that there are front entranceways that allow for clear visibility of what’s happening outside of the school, right? So there are facilities enhancements. There’s also ongoing training. It’s, again, something you don’t do once, but every year we have to continually train staff. So there are investments in that area. And then of course there’s staffing. We have security assistants, for example, in many of our schools. We pay for an education resource officer at each of our high schools. We fund that fully as a school district. So, again, I think there are multiple facets and we’d love to see some funding dedicated to all those areas.

Frederica Freyberg:

And those education resource officers are police officers and they carry guns.

Jennifer Cheatham:

That's true, yep. We have one Madison police department officer trained specifically to be an education resource officer assigned to each of our four comprehensive high schools.

Frederica Freyberg:

One officer for hundreds and hundreds of students.

Jennifer Cheatham:

That's right.

Frederica Freyberg:

The governor’s plan also calls for incorporating trauma-informed care into training programs. How robust or lacking is that kind of training right now in your district?

Jennifer Cheatham:

Yeah. We have certainly made investments in training on trauma-informed care and we’ve actually taken it beyond there. We invest in integrated mental health and a subset of our schools are expanding that program in the coming year. And we work very closely with the county, funding a program called “Building Bridges” that allows families and students to get the mental health services that they need. So I say that mainly because trauma-informed care is one piece of a larger package of I think essential initiatives to provide the mental health services that students and families need.

Frederica Freyberg:

Critics say that the governor’s school safety plan does not address the gun issue like universal background checks. Is that something as school superintendent that you want to weigh in on?

Jennifer Cheatham:

I do. The Madison School Board has already stated its support for common sense gun reform. They approved a resolution at our school board last month along those lines. We would like to see that included in the governor’s package.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. We need to leave it there. Jennifer Cheatham, thank you very much.

Jennifer Cheatham:

All right. Thank you.