ATLANTA, GA — A group of Apalachee High School students, parents, and lawmakers gather at the capitol Tuesday morning to call on the legislature to do more to address school safety.
Layla Renee Contreras leads the group, Change for Chee, and says, “This is about gun safety. It is about ensuring that children do not gain access to unsecured firearms. It is about responsibility. It is about prevention, because no family should have to endure what Barrow County has been through.”
When a 14-year-old gunman opened fire inside Apalachee High School last September, senior Isabel Trejo was in the building. She says lawmakers need to approve legislation beefing up school safety, but also a law requiring guns be stored securely if a minor is in the home.
The fact that the teenager was able to get his hands on a gun and kill four people inside her daughter’s high school, shows parent Dina Valladares that legislation requiring guns be stored securely if a minor is in the home is critical.
She says she also supports recently proposed legislation to allow more communication between schools and money to beef up school security measures.