By Celia Richardson

The College Park Education Advisory Committee may be taking a stronger stance on school safety this year as the committee discussed whether to proceed with a potential gun control letter during its Oct. 21 meeting.

The committee discussed the contents of the letter in September, and initially intended to vote on it Monday. However, members were split on the issue, and committee member Stacy Currie even abstained from commenting on it. The committee put off voting to allow members to do more research and for the committee to solidify its approach.  

“It is an item that can make people very uncomfortable,” said Committee Chair Carolyn Bernache, explaining that some committee members “haven’t quite gotten to the point where there’s going to be a comfortable discussion.” 

The purpose of the letter is to discuss how gun use impacts the educational environment, and for the committee to express support for specific countermeasures. The letter would then be delivered to the College Park mayor and city council, urging the city to take an official stance on gun control, explained Committee Co-Chair David Toledo. 

Though the list has yet to be solidified, specific measures supported in the letter will likely include:

• Background checks.
• Limiting magazine size (the number of bullets a gun can hold).
• A “red flag” alert system where someone’s weapons can be taken away if someone suspects he may use them to do harm.

“I think that when it comes to our children’s safety and our community’s safety, we can always do more. And considering the rise in gun violence that we’ve seen across the nation, it doesn’t hurt to tackle this issue from every angle,” said Toledo, who supports the letter.

The issue of gun control is particularly relevant following a recent shooting in College Park. A woman was shot multiple times on Thursday, Oct. 3, in the 4300 block of Metzerott Road near a park around 9 p.m., according to a police alert. This happened just five minutes away from the University of Maryland campus. 

“It brings gun violence to the forefront of our minds and it gives us something to leverage and pivot when we try to ask for change,” said Toledo of the recent shooting.

Doris Ellis, a retired schoolteacher who has been on the committee for over a decade, said the committee usually handles things like giving schools money for field trips or books for classrooms. However, addressing the mayor on a controversial issue may not be so unusual for the committee, after all. 

“When the DACA issue came up, we drafted a letter for the city council,” explained Bernache in September. “The city council then was able to forward it to other officials.”

DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, protects undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children. Toledo said the letter supported the city of College Park as being a “sanctuary or safe space for DACA students,” particularly because of the large number of DACA recipients in the K-12 system and at the University of Maryland. 

The letter, which the committee approved and signed, told the mayor and city council that the committee wanted them to reach out to council members and representatives. The mayor accepted the letter and forwarded it up. If passed, the gun control letter would likely be handled similarly, with the committee asking that it be forwarded along to other state and national legislatures. 

“Some issues are too difficult for a committee to handle and some are not,” Bernache said. Whether or not gun control is one of those issues, only time will tell. The committee will meet again on Nov. 18, and plans to vote on the letter.