Unfortunately one of the best ways humans learn is through mistakes. In recent years the state legislature has passed laws that appear to have backfired with respect to discipline in classrooms. The recent heart-wrenching incidents within our schools, including the loss of Jonathan Lewis Jr and the sexual assault of a teacher make it clear action is needed.
It is applaudable to have taken effort through Assembly Bill (AB) 330, but it has made schools demonstrably and clearly less safe which makes it a threat to the safety of every student, staff, and visitor at any school. While I believe it is generally best to make slow changes, at a minimum we should repeal AB 330 and replace it with a new bill I would be proud to sponsor in the namesake of Jonathan Lewis, Jr, who died essentially for being brave. I have taken such a personal interest in this that I will be building an app to attempt to help facilitate a more open dialogue between students, faculty, parents, and law enforcement based on how things escalate. I can’t help but believe that Jonathan Lewis Jr would still be alive today if we had focused on trying to solve for minimizing violence. A part of the true tragedy here is that the young men that brutally murdered Jonathan Lewis, Jr also had their lives forever altered in a permanent and tragic way, ironically the exact opposite of what the bill was intended to do.
I believe that the state legislature has no business in advising all of the schools to have a uniform standard for dealing with the matters of keeping their children safe. I believe that the teachers and faculty could be better supported with technology which could easily be built, deployed, and scaled.
A vote for me is a vote for a scrutiny of prior laws and an attempt to incorporate the good and bad things we’ve learned. I love Nevada and I want to do great things for it!
