Meeting focuses on school safety

04/26/2007

By Joy Powell, Star Tribune
Last update: April 26, 2007


How do you recognize and stop a school shooter before tragedies such as the Red Lake and Rocori killings in Minnesota and, most recently, the Virginia Tech slayings?

Tuesday, Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Mike Leavitt, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, met with about 40 representatives from education, mental health and law enforcement agencies to discuss how to at least minimize risks.

"We spoke at length about how do we find balance between the need for community safety and the privacy of people, and at the same time, destigmatize in a way that will encourage people to get help when they need it," Leavitt said of the closed-door session.

Pawlenty said he'll continue his efforts to change Minnesota's data privacy law so that educators, police, mental health experts and others can share information about potential shooters.

Imagine a scenario, Pawlenty told reporters afterward, in which a mental health professional, school nurse, administrator or a law enforcement official "may each have tidbits about a particular student, but because of existing data privacy laws aren't necessarily able to share that."

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