News, Politics
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Malloy’s Sandy Hook Panel to Meet Thursday
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced today that the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission, chaired by Hamden Mayor Scott Jackson, will hold its first meeting on Thursday.
An announcement from the governor’s office said the 16-member panel, whose members include Denis McCarthy, Norwalk fire chief and former Westport fire chief, will receive information on the status of the Sandy Hook Elementary School investigation and then hear presentations from experts who were directly involved in the aftermath of the Columbine and Virginia Tech tragedies.
The meeting will begin with remarks by Malloy, who will charge the members with their objectives, followed by Danbury State’s Attorney Stephen J. Sedensky III, who will review the status of the Sandy Hook investigation, the governor’s office said.
The panel will then hear separate presentations from former Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter and University of Virginia School of Law Professor Richard Bonnie, who will each discuss how their states reacted to the Columbine and Virginia Tech shootings, respectively.
At the time of the Columbine massacre in 1999, Ritter was district attorney for Denver and became a member of the Columbine Review Commission, which conducted a review of the tragedy for then-Colorado Gov. Bill Owens. Ritter was elected governor of Colorado in 2007 and served until 2011.
Richard Bonnie is director of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy at the University of Virginia, and serves as chair of the Virginia Commission on Mental Health Law Reform. Following the Virginia Tech tragedy in 2007, he served as a consultant to then-Virginia Governor Tim Kaine’s Virginia Tech Review Panel.
Thursday’s meeting begins at 10:30 a.m. in Room 2C of the Legislative Office Building in Hartford. The meeting will be broadcast live on television and online by the Connecticut Network (CT-N).
The Sandy Hook Advisory Commission is comprised of experts created by Malloy to review current policy and make specific recommendations in the areas of public safety, with particular attention paid to school safety, mental health, and gun violence prevention.
Additional information on the commission can be found on its website at ct.gov/SHAC.
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Note: WestportNow Publisher Gordon F. Joseloff is also First Selectman of Westport