Remarks by President Trump in Roundtable Discussion on the Federal Commission on School Safety Report | Eastern North Carolina Now

    So thank you very much.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Great job you've done, too. Appreciate it.

    Carson, please.

    MS. ABT: Hi. I think, touching upon what Max was saying, there are great recommendations in this but now it's up to the states and to schools to actually put these recommendations to action. We've - on the federal level, we've gone as far as you can regarding this, and now it's up to the states and the schools. And there are a wide variety of recommendations - and while all of them are helpful, only one may be needed to change a school or to save someone's life.

    And, as a student in Douglas now, I look at this school and I see what's been done already. Specifically, one of the things I've noticed is we have a lot more drills and protocols about what to do in - not just active shooter drills, but in any emergency drills. And that's something where it's not just necessary for a school, but it's necessary for life. Because this isn't just happening at schools; this is happening in movie theaters and concerts -

    THE PRESIDENT: It's true.

    MS. ABT: And if you know what to do a young age, it's going to unfortunately be instinct by the time you're older. And while it's unfortunate, it will help keep you safe.

    So I thank you, Secretary, Mr. President, and all the other Secretaries for creating really a large report of recommendations because it hits a wide variety for schools to choose from.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thanks, Carson. I appreciate it.

    Andy.

    MR. POLLACK: Thank you, Mr. President. Right after my daughter was murdered, I came to the listening session here at the White House and I addressed the country. And I said, "We all need to come together and focus on school safety. It's something we all could agree on." And after that happened, there was a lot of people in the country that just wanted a certain agenda, okay? And I get - and you all know what that agenda is.

    But not - not this administration and the President here. They wanted to look into the facts of what happened that led up to Parkland. And the President listened. And he put together a commission that was going to look into all the facts that led up to February 14th to make it so it doesn't happen again, inform the Commission, and this is the most comprehensive report done after a school shooting ever by an administration, that's going to affect the quality of life for all students and teachers throughout this country. Because I know it affected me personally, what happened in Parkland. And these families know what happened in Parkland.

    And in this report that the President helped put together with his policymakers - I know there's people that we spoke with - and his administrators, and his Secretaries, they all put this report together, and it means so much to all of us. And this President and his administration listened. And he did this, and it means a lot to all of the families. And we want to thank all the administration for getting this done and making it safer for all of the kids in this country.


    And that's what it's about: Looking at the past - looking at what happened, and looking to prevent it from happening it again. Okay? That's what you do. You look at the facts - what it led up to February 14th, and you look to change things. And that's what this administration did, and I want to thank you so much for doing that. So thank you, sir.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much Andy.

    Scarlett?

    MS. LEWIS: Yeah, well this is Jesse, President Trump. And Jesse actually stood up to the shooter when he came into his first-grade classroom at Sandy Hook. And his brave action saved nine of his classmates' lives before losing his own. And I wanted to talk about that courage today, especially because I think that - I want to thank you for your courage; Betsy, for your courage. You really listened.

    When I opened the report, the number-one thing in the report was proactive prevention and social emotional learning. That's what I've been focusing on in the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement since day one, cultivating safety from the inside out of a child. External safety measures are so incredibly important, but equally as important is teaching kids how to manage their emotions, giving them skills and tools for resilience, teaching them how to have healthy connections - connection is love - that's cultivating safety from the inside out.

    You've got that in this report. This is the first administration to do that, and I want to thank you for your courage.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

    MS. LEWIS: Thank you.

    THE PRESIDENT: Secretary?

    SECRETARY NIELSEN: Well, sir, I just want to thank you for creating the Commission, and thank you for your leadership. I want to thank Secretary DeVos for all her hard work and that of her team, and my other commissioners.

    But I want to thank everyone around this table. Thank you for standing up. Thank you for giving a voice to the victims and survivors and to our communities.

    We listened. We hope that we learned from you. This is the start. We were just discussing this will not sit on a bookshelf. We intend to implement it under the President's guidance and leadership.

    But I want to thank you all, because it's understanding the communities, what you need, what the risk is, how you would like to address it that got us to this today. So thank you very much for all of your involvement.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Thanks, Kirstjen.

    Please, Ryan.

    MR. PETTY: Mr. President, thank you for having us here today. Thank you for your leadership on this issue. I'd like to thank the commissioners, also, for their hard work. I was flying down here when this was released, and trying to devour it on the plane as quickly as I could.

    As Andy said, this is the most comprehensive report I've ever seen, and I applaud the comprehensive nature but also the depth that goes into each of the recommendations, and the thoughtfulness in putting this together. There is so much to like here.

    My hope is that rather than fighting over the things we don't like or we think are missing, that as a nation we'll come together and focus on the things we do agree on. Because 99 percent of this, I think, we can agree on and we can move forward. And if we'll just agree on it, I think we can take steps towards solving this.

    So, Mr. President, thank you for doing that.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you.


    There's been a lot of love doing this. You know, it's very interesting, when you talk about the report and people are loving it in terms of - hopefully, it's going to be very effective, it's going to be put to good use.

    But it came out of a lot of great and, really, brilliant people, and people that love what they're doing because they understand where it's all coming from and where it's going, and what you want to accomplish, much more so than just haphazardly putting a group of experts in charge. So I just want to thank everybody so much. Thank you very much.

    Alex?

    SECRETARY AZAR: Yes, Mr. President. And I'd like to especially thank Secretary DeVos for her leadership of the Commission and the efforts here, and really echo what Scarlett had to say about the mental health issues. I think that was one of the key learnings of the Commission, was just what we're facing in terms of depression, anxiety, and self-harm thoughts of our kids.

    Major depression has increased by two-thirds among youth, from 2010 to 2017. One in eight children will have a major depressive episode in any given year. And mental health disorders that are not properly treated can lead to self-harm and harm for others.

    And so that's one of the key outgrowths of this report, are four key areas for focus and recommendation at the federal, state, and local level.

    The first is that we've got to make sure our mental health services and connections to treatment are available at our schools. We've got to get to our kids where they feel safe.

    The second is that we've got to have opportunities for more effective screening for mental health, and we've got to get kids on psychosocial and psychotropic medications to treat them.

    And third, we have to have better understanding of a lot of our medical privacy laws and education privacy laws, and fix them where needed to ensure that when there's a cry for help, that cry can be heard by other family members and by authorities.

    And then, finally, we've got to make sure that we have available and effective treatment options for our kids who are suffering from mental health disorders.

    So, Mr. President, we've got a very bold agenda here and action plan, but I think these are the right kinds of issues to solve them, to really tackle the problem, rather than just flashy things that won't actually deliver results.

    THE PRESIDENT: So, thank you, Mr. Secretary. I appreciate it. You have done a fantastic job. We appreciate it very much.

    Rusty?

    MR. NORMAN: Mr. President, we definitely want to thank you, from Santa Fe, and your team - all the work that went into this. The community of Santa Fe, Santa Fe ISD, is still very much in recovery mode from the mass tragedy that we had in May. Oddly enough, I think your Commission had a meeting the day before we had our tragedy in Santa Fe. And we were given some briefings and did have an opportunity to visit with some of the commissioners and some of the folks on the committee shortly thereafter.


    We have undertaken many things in Santa Fe that we knew to do: hardening of schools and a few changes like that. We responded to what the community and what the parents wanted; what the students wanted to feel safer. But we really didn't know what we were looking at long term. So we were very much looking forward to this information to see, number one, what we might have missed in a best practice just in the early stages, but more importantly, what we can do to impact these students - not just in Santa Fe, and not just in Texas - but all across country.

    Because as I told you back in June, we have an epidemic of violence that has got to be stopped. And when you have high school students tell you that it's just the world we live in, that has to change. And I think that this will be a great step to start that way.

    Previous administration have tried to do things, but I have great faith that this one is actually going to go the distance to make things really happen.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Rusty. I appreciate it. Thank you.

    JT?

    MR. LEWIS: Sure. Thank you for having us, by the way, Mr. President.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you, JT.

    MR. LEWIS: I just want to say, since I lost my brother at Sandy Hook - and this is my mom, by the way -

    THE PRESIDENT: I know.

    MR. LEWIS: - it's been 19 years since Columbine, 11 years since Virginia Tech, and 6 years, on Friday, since Sandy Hook. And we've met with governors; we've met with senators. We met with the previous administration - the President and the Secretary of Education. And everyone wanted to focus on a certain issue, as Andy said. And I won't say it, but they didn't want to focus on school safety, which is the most important thing, and what this report really tackles.

    So I want to thank you. I want to thank everyone who had input on this report. It's amazing stuff. And it's interesting, as I learn going back to school in Newtown - Sandy Hook - the schools become infinitely safer the day after the shooting. They implement all of this stuff, and you feel completely safe in this school that just had a shooting yesterday.

    So this needs to get into the schools before something like that happens. So I want to applaud everyone here for taking the effort to do this. Thank you, Secretary DeVos. Thank you everyone.