School safety measure now up to Senate44

There is no guarantee that a proposed law working its way through the General Assembly would have spared teacher Carolyn Gilbert the unprovoked knife attack by a student that, in addition to much terror and suffering, cost her the use of one eye.

But it is certain that without such a law, Gilbert never had a chance.

That conclusion became starkly evident in the research leading to a series of Daily Herald reports last year about the 2008 stabbing. One fundamental contributing factor uncovered by Politics and Projects Writer Kerry Lester was privacy rules that kept police and other safety authorities from alerting schools to individuals known to have a potential for violence.

In the Gilbert case, Elgin police were investigating her attacker for two previous sex assaults before he stabbed his Elgin High School teacher, yet no one at the school, not even the school police officer, knew of his potential for violence.

Understandably, civil rights advocates have fretted over the threats to privacy that legislation requiring police and schools to share information about juveniles could pose. And, such concerns surfaced in original versions of House legislation promoted by state Rep. Carol Sente, a Vernon Hills Democrat. But Sente, in cooperation with a variety of special interest groups, revised her bill and developed an approach that allows authorities to alert a school or a teacher about a potential threat without making the information part of a public record or of the student’s permanent record.

With this reasonable accommodation, the House has passed Sente’s bill, and the Senate now is poised to consider in April a similar approach brought by Carol Stream Republican Sen. John Millner.

No, it doesn’t seem reasonable that police and schools can have regular meetings to trade rumors and speculations about individual students. Nor does this legislation provide any assurance that someone like Gilbert’s attacker would be identified and reported in time.

But when investigations demonstrate clear, actionable behaviors that could be a threat at a school or, conversely, in the larger community, authorities need to be able to provide warnings to each other.

As we have state previously, this effort is not about stigmatizing students; it’s about providing a measure of safety for their schoolmates and for the adults responsible for all of their care.

It is, in short, about giving them all, at least, a chance. When they get the chance next month, we urge senators to act quickly and decisively to send the measure to Gov. Pat Quinn for his signature.