Olathe East High School Shooting

Floor Speech

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Ms. DAVIDS of Kansas. Madam Speaker, last Friday a student brought a gun into Olathe East High School. By noon, three people, an assistant principal, a school resource officer, and a student were on their way to the Overland Park Regional Medical Center with gunshot wounds.

Students hid in classrooms sending texts that every parent dreads receiving: Someone is shooting inside the school. Thanks to the actions of Officer Erik Clark and the assistant principal Kaleb Stoppel, those parents were able to reunite with their students safely on Friday afternoon.

We are all grateful and hoping for their full recovery. I know I am not alone in thinking that things could have been much worse were it not for their intervention.

I would also like to commend the Olathe Police Department, fire department, and Johnson County MED-ACT for their exemplary response. Thank you for helping keep our community safe. These are the headlines that every American is tired of reading, that everyone fears will come to their doorstep.

We must step up mental health support in schools--not just in the aftermath of trauma, but permanently. I stand with every parent, educator, student, and Kansan who has come together to call for commonsense gun safety. We have to be brave enough to put our kids' lives first.

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