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Attorney General Kaul speaking at South Milwaukee High School Thursday advocating for funding office of School Safety. Staff Photo Steve Schuster

By Steve Schuster

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Wisconsin has once again been cast into the national spotlight this time calling upon Wisconsin legislators to fund the Office of School Safety.

National school safety advocates Monday are urging Wisconsin lawmakers to reverse the Republican controlled Joint Committee on Finance refusal to fund the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of School Safety (OSS) to ensure the office can continue its mission: Saving lives and keeping our Wisconsin children safe.

Office of School Safety trainings and programs follow national best practices, helping to ensure that high-quality school safety resources are available to Wisconsin schools, said Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul.

We need to keep these resources in place, not leave our schools and our kids without them, Kaul added.

OSS was created with bipartisan support in 2018 in response to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla. and has proven to be a critical resource for students, teachers, school administrators, and educational communities across the state of Wisconsin implementing practices proven to prevent violence in schools, Kaul added.

As previously reported by the Wisconsin Law Journal, Wisconsin was in the national spotlight prior to the April election.

This is a state where progressivism was started with Robert La Follette. This is where it all began. People around the country looked to Wisconsin for how democracy should be perfected. And now, people are looking at Wisconsin yet again, to see how democracy can be saved. That is whats at stake, said former Attorney General Eric Holder during a campaign event in April for Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Janet Protasiewicz.

Also as previously reported by the Wisconsin Law Journal, at a time when the State of Wisconsin has a record $6.6 billion surplus, the Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee (JFC) approved a motion earlier in June effectively cutting all funds for school safety and only approved only a fraction of what Gov. Tony Evers requested for the Wisconsin Department of Justices budget.

Also as previously reported by the Wisconsin Law Journal, both Republican and Democrat Wisconsin officials stood in solidarity earlier in June advocating for additional funds for Wisconsins Crime Lab. The Criminal Justice Coalition gathered in Madison expressing support for critical investments needed to be made in Wisconsins criminal justice system. Among those investments, Toney made a case or additional toxicologists.

Earlier this month, Kaul released a statement critical of the Joint Committee on Finance vote on the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) budget.

There is nothing more important than keeping our kids safe, and yet the Joint Finance Committee took action today that would gut the Office of School Safety. Without prompt legislative action to remedy this issue, core services that office has providedincluding the 24/7 tip line that has received thousands of contactswill end, said Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul.

On June 22, Kaul met with law enforcement officials and school leaders in Milwaukee County asking Wisconsin legislators to urgently fund the Wisconsin Department of Justice Office of School Safety (OSS) before Federal dollars dry up.

On Monday, June 26, 2023, several officials are slated to speak in Madison advocating for Wisconsins Office of School Safety.

Max Schachter, a national school safety advocate and parent of one of the students killed in the Parkland, Fla. shooting, has been urging Wisconsin lawmakers to fund OSS for months. Schacter provided the following statement regarding OSS funding.

Its sad that after 17 people were murdered in the Parkland school shooting, including my sweet little boy Alex, there are still legislatures, like in Wisconsin, that think it wont happen in their state. Thankfully a school shooting the scale of Parkland hasnt happened YET; due in large part to the good work of the Wisconsin Office of School Safety. The Wisconsin legislatures decision not to fund the ongoing training and Speak Up, Speak Out program I believe will lead to disastrous consequences. Schools will be less prepared to respond when tragedy strikes because the OSS will have canceled their critical response training. Children struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts wont have the trained analysts in the Speak Up, Speak Out program to talk to, and when kids know that someone is planning a school shooting the program designed to prevent it will be closed, Schachter said.

In the five years since my son Alex was murdered in the Parkland school shooting, Florida has moved mountains to make schools safer throughout our state. Very soon our office will be staffed with over 30 personnel. We have allocated over $1 Billion for school safety and $500 million for mental health funding. In all of our 4,000+ schools we have a school safety officer, threat assessment teams, directors of school safety and mental health coordinators. I could go on and onMost importantly, our leaders understand that safety comes before education, because you cant teach dead kids. Wisconsin should NOT wait for tragedy to strike before their leaders take the safety and security of their schools seriously, Schachter added.

OSS staff provide trainings that follow national best practices related to crisis prevention and response, at no cost to any Wisconsin school that requests it. They also developed and maintain critical incident response teams for every region of Wisconsin, and they established and run the Speak Up, Speak Out Resource Center, including the 24-hour tipline. OSS has also distributed nearly $100 million in grants for safety enhancements, threat assessment training, and mental health training to public, private, charter, and tribal schools throughout Wisconsin, according to Wisconsin DOJ officials.

Michele Gay is the executive direct of Safe and Sound Schools, she is also the mother of Josephine Gay, who was killed at Sandy Hook School. Safe and Sound Schools partnered with OSS when developing Speak Up, Speak Out.

Safe and Sound Schools believe the safety of Wisconsins students and school staff are the greatest priority of its citizens. We are proud to have partnered with the Office of School Safety as it built a statewide reporting program, Speak Up, Speak Out; provided critical technical assistance to school communities; supported school communities in prevention, response and recovery (including the community of Barron, Wis., during the kidnapping and recovery of a student); and conducted statewide threat assessment trainings, intervening on behalf of students in crisis and protecting against acts of targeted violence, said Michele Gay. We urge Wisconsin legislators to stand up for students and school communities and continue funding OSS to provide for the critical needs of school safety at this unprecedented time of need in our schools and communities, Gay said.

Susan Payne is the Founder and Former Executive Director of the Safe2Tell non-profit prevention initiative developed as a response to the Columbine tragedy in Colorado. She also served as a special agent for the state of Colorado and is a nationally recognized school safety expert. Payne worked closely with OSS staff to develop Wisconsins Speak Up, Speak Out 24/7 confidential reporting system, DOJ officials noted.

In the past 24 years since Columbine, the stark reality of lessons learned in tragedies involving students and mass attacks of violence, that our best chance of preventing them is to have a school community that knows how to identify the warning signs, a bystander reporting system to report those concerns combined with trained multi-discipline teams to respond at the school and community level, said Payne.

Combining that with training on the United States Secret Service threat assessment model and crisis response will provide a comprehensive prevention framework for safer students, safer staff and safer communities. Im proud to say that this strategy has been a bipartisan supported solution that works, Payne added.

Speak Up, Speak Out

On September 1, 2020, OSS launched Speak Up, Speak Out (SUSO), a 24/7 statewide confidential reporting system free to all Wisconsin schools. SUSO is a comprehensive, one-stop place to turn with important concerns, offering a Threat Reporting System, Threat Assessment Consultation, Critical Incident Response and General School Safety Guidance. SUSO aims to promote the reporting of concerns before violence happens, according to Wisconsin DOJ.

SUSO Fast Facts

Students, parents, school staff, or any community members can submit a school safety concern or threat via the SUSO website, mobile phone application, or toll-free number.

SUSO Reports can be made 24 hours a day, 7 days a week:

John-Michael Keyes, co-founder of the I Love You Guys Foundation, a national organization that provides school and community safety and family reunification programs, has collaborated and partnered with OSS since its inception.

I urge the State of Wisconsin to prioritize funding for the Office of School Safety to ensure that our students, staff, and communities have secure learning, teaching, and visiting environments, said Keyes. Lets work together to make our schools the safest they can be, Keyes added.

OSS Training

OSS staff are certified to train a variety of courses that follow national best practices related to violence prevention, protection, mitigation, crisis response and recovery. OSS offers these trainings free of charge to any school or law enforcement agency in Wisconsin that requests it. Trainings offered in Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management (BTAM) equip school and law enforcement staff with the knowledge, protocol and model practices needed to determine if someone poses a threat to their school and how to intervene effectively based on the level of concern posed. Crisis Intervention trainings equip school staff to respond effectively when a crisis event occurs in a way that will promote psychological recovery for all staff and students. Other trainings help school staff establish standardized response and reunification for any school crisis, from fires and floods to acts of violence. OSS staff continue to expand the trainings offered to ensure that Wisconsin schools have a comprehensive toolkit to help keep kids and school staff safe, Wisconsin DOJ officials noted.

School shootings are preventable. Two practices are proven to prevent school violence: an accessible, effective threat reporting system and BTAM. OSS leads the state in bringing both the practices to school. The U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) studied 41 incidents of targeted school violence that occurred at K-12 schools in the United States from 2008 to 2017, Wisconsin DOJ officials said.

According to their report, many of these tragedies could have been prevented, and supports the importance of schools establishing comprehensive targeted violence prevention programs as recommended by the Secret Service in Enhancing School Safety Using a Threat Assessment Model.

This approach is intended to identify students of concern, assess their risk for engaging in violence or other harmful activities, and implement intervention strategies to manage that risk. The threshold for intervention should be low, so that schools can identify students in distress before their behavior escalates to the level of eliciting concerns about safety, Wisconsin DOJ officials added.

OSS Training Fast Facts

Dr. Stephen Brock and Dr. Melissa Reeves, members of the National Association of School Psychologists and authors of the PREPaRE curriculum, have trained OSS staff in their model practices for school crisis prevention and response.

It is essential to have the capacity to respond to the aftereffects of school-associated crisis events. Our school age youth, because they are younger, are particularly vulnerable to having crisis event exposure result in health problems, said Steven Brock and Melissa Reeves.

These problems can have long lasting (even lifelong) effects and will result in academic failure and challenges to mental wellness, which in the long run will have greater costs than the small funding required to support school safety efforts. Brock and Reeves said.

Critical Incident Response Teams

In 2022, OSS established and trained twelve Critical Incident Response Teams (CIRTs) around the state. CIRTs are designed to provide all Wisconsin K-12 public, private, charter and tribal schools with access to a regionally based team to support them if a critical incident ever occurs at their school. Each CIRT is made up of volunteers who are part of a multi-disciplinary team. These teams include law enforcement officers, school administrators, counselors, psychologists, social workers, nurses, teachers, school safety experts, and representatives from other related professions. The mission of the CIRT program is to minimize the psychological impact of a school critical incident; provide resources to help stabilize the school community; work to identify individuals that may require long-term mental health services after a critical incident occurs; and offer support to school administrators and educators. Wisconsin is the first state to implement regionally based CIRTs on a statewide basis. Additional training academies are being held this summer, adding team members across the state, Wisconsin DOJ officials said.

CIR Fast Facts

OSS was initially supported by more than $2 million in federal grant funding from the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance. OSS is currently supported by more than $1.8 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding which will end in December of 2023. Without additional funding, the critical services provided by OSS will cease to exist. Wisconsin DOJ has requested the legislature permanently fund OSS in the next biennial budget, Wisconsin DOJ officials added.

As previously reported by the Wisconsin Law Journal, all four JFC Democrats voted against the motion, which was introduced by Republicans Rep. Born and Sen. Marklein.

To view the full motionclick here.

Representative Born (Co-Chair)(R Beaver Dam)

Senator Marklein (Co-Chair)(R Spring Green)

Representative Katsma (Vice-Chair)(R Spring Green)

Senator Stroebel (Vice-Chair)(R Saukville)

Senator Felzkowski(R Irma)

Senator Ballweg(R Markesan)

Senator Testin(R Stevens Point)

Senator Wimberger(R Green Bay)

Senator L. Johnson(D Milwaukee)

Senator Roys(D Madison)

Representative Zimmerman(R River Falls)

Representative Rodriguez(R Oak Creek)

Representative Kurtz(R Wonewoc)

Representative Dallman(R Green Lake)

Representative Goyke(D Milwaukee)

Representative McGuire(D Kenosha)

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National advocates call on Wisconsin lawmakers to fund the Office ... - Wisconsin Law Journal

Eric Holder, who served as attorney general under President Barack Obama, on Sunday said it would be simply absurd for Donald Trump to serve as president again if he is found guilty of mishandling classified documents.

The former president, who is currently the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination, was indicted on 37 counts over keeping top secret documents after he left the White House in January 2021 and allegedly obstructing government efforts to recover them.

Despite the damning charges, which include willful retention of national defense information and conspiracy to obstruct justice, Trump has continued to claim hes innocent and appears determined to stay in the 2024 presidential contest.

The notion that you could have a trial, defend it, be convicted, somehow win the election, be sworn in as a president, or whenever it happens, that seems inconsistent with our notion of fairness, of the rule of law, Holder said on MSNBCs Inside with Jen Psaki.

Holder added that he would hope that an impeachment proceeding would be triggered if Trump were to be found guilty while in office, and that he would ultimately be removed from the role.

The notion that a convicted felon ... would serve as president of the United States is absurd, is simply absurd, Holder said.

But Trump has said he has no intention of stepping aside.

Ill never leave, Trump told Politico Saturday. Look, if I would have left, I would have left prior to the original race in 2016. That was a rough one. In theory that was not doable.

Holder also expressed concern about Aileen Cannon, the judge who will preside over the case, saying she doesnt have the legal acumen to oversee a case of this importance.

Cannon, who was appointed by Trump in 2020, was criticized over her decision to grant the former presidents request for a special master to review the documents the FBI obtained during a search of Mar-a-Lago in August. Her ruling was overturned by a federal appeals court.

Story continues

I would hope that she would see within herself, or that somehow, some way, she is convinced that she should get off the case and some other judge should handle this matter, Holder said. I dont have confidence in her abilities to be fair, or to be seen as fair.

He added that Cannon as a presiding judge would have the power to affect the case in a number of ways.

But the one that concerns me the most is the notion of delay, and pushing this case, you know, past the general election, certainly well into the primary season, just by the way in which she schedules things, Holder added.

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Eric Holder Says It Would Be 'Absurd' For Trump To Serve As President If Convicted - Yahoo News

Attorney General Keith Ellison kept a diary in 2021 as he directed the prosecution of former police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd. Tuesday, the world will be able to read those diaries.

"Break the Wheel: Ending the Cycle of Police Violence," will be published by 12 Books, with a foreword by Floyd's brother Philonise and blurbs from former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Ben Crump, who represented the Floyd family. Ellison will speak about the 304-page book and his work at Macalester College's John B. Davis Lecture Hall at 7 p.m. May 25.

The book is described as a "spoke-by-spoke" look at parties involved in the attempt to end the chain of violence, including prosecutors, police unions, activists and the media. Ellison told the New York Times that he worked on "Break the Wheel" in the early hours of the morning, prior to reporting for work, hoping to create "a historical account and a guide to officials when faced with a case of police misconduct."

According to the Times, Ellison's book is heavily focused on the process of jury selection, which resulted in what the author calls "the single most diverse jury I had ever empaneled."

Ellison was re-elected as attorney general last fall by just 21,000 votes. Chauvin is currently serving his sentence in Tucson, Ariz.

Originally posted here:
Keith Ellison to publish George Floyd trial diary Tuesday, with intro ... - Star Tribune

[*This story was updated at 12:26 a.m., May 16, 2023, to reflect updated unofficial vote tallies]

Democrat Heather Boyd won the special election to replace former state Rep. Mike Zabel, D-Delaware, preserving the Democratic one-vote majority in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

Boyd, a former congressional staffer from Upper Darby Township, received about 60% of the vote in the election, according to unofficial tallies. The contest coincided with the municipal election primary election on Tuesday.

Her Republican opponent, Katie Ford, who ran on a moderate conservative platform, received about 40% of the vote with about 1% of ballots cast for Libertarian candidate Alfe Goodwin, unofficial tallies showed.

Boyd arrived at a post-election party at Caseys Saloon and Restaurant in Drexel Hill to raucous cheers and chants, and thanked her supporters and family for their efforts during the eight-week campaign.

A number of Democratic House leaders including Majority Leader Matt Bradford, of Montgomery County, and Appropriations Committee Chairperson Jordan Harris, of Philadelphia, were in attendance.

This election has been about all of you in this room and countless others who arent here today who cared enough and believed enough and worked hard enough to make the difference, Boyd said.

Ford declined to comment in a text message.

Gov. Josh Shapiro congratulated Boyd in a tweet and said he looked forward to working with her as Delaware Countys newest state representative.

Together, well work to get things done for Pennsylvanians and protect real freedom, Shapiro tweeted. And to Delco: Thank you for showing up to defend our rights and the Democratic House majority.

Former U.S. attorney general and National Democratic Redistricting Committee Chairperson Eric Holder said in a statement that Boyds election would ensure the rights and freedoms of her constituents are protected. He attributed the Democratic House majority her victory secured to the most recent redrawing of Pennsylvanias legislative districts.

For the previous decade, gerrymandered maps allowed Republicans to maintain an unbreakable, unfair grip on the Pennsylvania General Assembly. These new maps are a win for democracy and the people of Pennsylvania, Holder said.

In another special election for Republican state Sen. Lynda Schlegel Culvers former 108th House District seat in Northumberland and Montour counties, Republican Michael Stender defeated Democrat Trevor Finn in a similarly lopsided election with nearly 66% of the vote, according to unofficial tallies.

Boyd received more than $1 million in support from the House Democratic Campaign Committee that paid for campaign ads critical of Fords positions on abortion and her suitability for state office in light of her history of bankruptcies.

Ford responded in ads where she told voters that her financial troubles were the result of her decision to seek treatment for her son, who has autism.

Ford also said in a televised debate that she would not support a proposed constitutional amendment declaring there is no constitutional right to abortion, or state funding for the procedure, that the Republican- controlled General Assembly approved last year.

Under the state constitution, an amendment must pass both chambers in successive sessions before going to voters.

Boyd attributed her victory to the work of volunteers who knocked on tens of thousands of doors in the district to get out the word about the election.

You rolled up your sleeves, you got to work and you let the 163rd be heard, Boyd said.

Democratic leaders said the district would be a safe Democratic seat in a General Election with presidential or gubernatorial candidates on the ballot. But in a primary election dominated by partisan super voters, a Democratic victory was not certain.

Boyd said she felt the weight of the consequences of the election but tried not to make it the focus of her campaign.

I tried not to focus on it because ultimately this is about my district. The majority is its own challenge. And thats somebody elses issue, Boyd said. For me, it was focusing on the voters. Its my community. Its where I feel the strongest.

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Democrat Heather Boyd wins special election, securing Democratic ... - Pennsylvania Capital-Star

A desperate battle has been waged at the Capitol to address the number one killer of people between the ages of 18 and 45 fentanyl. Minnesota may finally be on a better path.

Thanks to a coalition including grieving families, community leaders, law enforcement and prosecutors, common sense legislation increasing penalties for fentanyl trafficking to equal the penalties for heroin are included in the public safety bill (SF2909) thats on its way to Gov. Tim Walz for his expected signature. A bill to require and fund lifesaving Narcan in Minnesota schools is included in the education finance bill.

These glimmers of hope confront a sobering reality. Well more than 107,000 Americans and more than 1,200 Minnesotans were killed by drug overdoses in 2021, and fentanyl is the biggest killer. Fentanyl deaths are rising sharply. One kilogram of fentanyl can kill 500,000. The emergency department at Hennepin County Medical Center is overwhelmed by 100 overdose patients a week.

As a prosecutor, I have witnessed this carnage: Parents appearing at court hearings scared to death that if released from jail and without treatment, their children will die. Heartbroken friends and families of overdose victims speaking at sentencing hearings. Desperate addicts marshaling strength and courage to fight a demon that has consumed them.

We have a moral imperative to do everything in our power to save the lives of our young people from this poison. Success will require us to recognize two essential truths.

First, the threat from fentanyl and other powerful synthetic drugs is a threat to public health exponentially greater than any prior drug epidemic we have faced.

Second, knee-jerk partisan narratives must be rejected in favor of a nuanced approach that considers every possible solution.

Fentanyl is 50 times more powerful than heroin.

Experts suggest that between 40% and 60% of fentanyl pills are potentially fatal.

Fentanyl is present in as many as 90% of the counterfeit oxycodone pills seized by law enforcement, and is frequently mixed with cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin.

Its so bad that bipartisan legislation in Congress seeks to classify fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. Indeed, given its lethality it may be more accurate to consider it a poison than a drug.

There is no clear historical precedent for fentanyl or other super-charged synthetic drugs. Yes, methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and prescription drugs have ruined and taken lives. Never, however, have we been faced with a drug that carries a significant potential of a life-threatening overdose every time it is used. But for Narcan and the heroic work of emergency responders, far more overdoses would result in death.

Prior to the 2023 legislative session, boilerplate political narratives blocked any progress. As recently as 2021 the Minnesota Senate, with Republicans in the majority, passed a bill increasing penalties for fentanyl trafficking by a decisive bipartisan vote of 62-5. The bill never received a vote in the DFL-majority House. The legislation requiring and funding Minnesota schools to have lifesaving Narcan failed to survive the legislative gridlock in both 2021 and 2022.

Some folks on the left would label any effort to prosecute purveyors of this poison for profit as a part of the failed War on Drugs strategy of the past.

But thats the wrong analysis, given Minnesotas approach to prosecuting drug offenses coupled with fentanyls unique threats to public health.

Minnesota is in fact a probation-first/treatment-first state. Our prison rates by population are low, whereas the number of residents on probation is comparatively high. In courthouses throughout the state, defense attorneys, prosecutors and judges continue to find ways to keep users and user-dealers out of prison. The Minnesota Drug Sentencing Reform Act of 2016 aimed specifically to keep addicts out of prison wherever possible.

Knowingly selling fentanyl again, a poison as much as a narcotic even if in part to fuel an addiction, is a criminal act worthy of punishment. Selling a product as lethal as fentanyl knowing the result could be overdose or death cannot be excused as simply an act of addiction or economic desperation.

Concerns from progressives as to the unequal impact of the War on Drugs on communities of color have merit. A different racial inequity, however, can be seen in the tragic disparities in death rates by fentanyl overdose in our Indigenous communities and communities of color. Minnesota has among the largest racial disparities gap in overdose deaths in the United States. As a percentage of population, more than nine times as many Indigenous residents die of overdoses as white Minnesotans. Overdose deaths among Black Minnesotans are three times as high as in white Minnesotans.

The storyline we hear from the right has also been destructive. Addiction is a disease. Deterrence through harsher penalties must be focused rather than indiscriminate. Fentanyl is coming into the United States through Mexico, but generally through sophisticated networks involving commercial vehicles and not desperate migrants crowding the border. Treatment and harm reduction must be central to any effort to stop this epidemic.

House and Senate members on both sides of the aisle can learn from GOP Rep. Dave Bakers support of both a public safety and a public health approach. Rep. Kelly Moller, DFL-Shoreview, and Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, have worked with Baker and GOP members in a refreshing show of bipartisanship.

As chair of the Opioid Epidemic Response Advisory Council, Baker, who lost a son to opioids, is working with an impressive board of doctors and health professionals dedicated to a comprehensive public health approach to opioid addiction.

There are also hopeful signs that congressional action may be on the horizon. President Joe Biden, no doubt spurred to action by reports from high level public safety and national security experts, specifically called for increasing federal penalties for fentanyl trafficking in his recent State of the Union address. U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, a Democrat from the 2nd District, spoke powerfully of the need to address fentanyl through aggressive drug interdiction efforts at the recent rally at the Minnesota Capitol.

Former Attorney General Eric Holder recently cautioned both the left and the right to avoid a reflexive response to the historic challenges of the fentanyl epidemic. The breadth and scope of this challenge requires both a vigorous criminal justice approach and a public health response.

We need an all-of-the-above approach, including focused deterrence, harm reduction, education and awareness and a comprehensive public health response.

With every passing day that we dont act, more people die.

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Let's applaud the bipartisan approach to fentanyl at the state Capitol ... - Minnesota Reformer