Mass. policymakers react to Colorado shootings

By Martin Finucane, Associated Press, 04/19/99

For the latest coverage of the tragedy in Littleton, Colo., see our coverage in The Boston Globe's Boston.com. Wednesday's coverage -Rampage reconstruction -Families mourn victims -Colo. gun law debate -What went wrong? -False 'warnings' on AOL -Clinton speaks on massacre -World reactions Globe coverage -Need for prevention -TV coverage -'A suicide mission' Background -Map of Littleton -List of injured -Shooting chronology -Past school shootings -What was 'Trenchcoat Mafia'

BOSTON - The school shootings in Littleton, Colo., underline the need for continuing efforts to prevent school violence in Massachusetts, elected officials said Wednesday.

"We've got to stay ahead of the violence and that's what we're trying to do,'' Attorney General Thomas Reilly said.

Reilly said he was working to spread a program statewide that succeeded in Middlesex County while he was district attorney.

Under the program, there is coordination and information sharing between school officials, police, prosecutors, probation officers and social service agencies.

The idea is to identify troubled youths and get them help -- or even get them off the street -- before violence erupts.

Police might be able, for example, to tell school officials if a feud between two students has broken out outside the school, or vice versa.

Reilly said some other DAs in the state have started up the program. He didn't have figures on how many towns have the program. But he said the attorney general's office has been spreading the word since he took office in January.

"We still have a long way to go and we need to expand our efforts at early intervention, early identification of at-risk children,'' he said.

Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, Reilly's predecessor, had promoted a program that tried to get students to resolve conflicts with the help of student mediators.

Reilly, a first-term Democrat, said mediation was a part of the solution, but some disputes might require "stronger intervention.''

Gov. Paul Cellucci said: "We're all shocked and horrified by what happened in Colorado and I think we need to redouble our efforts to make sure our schools are safe. The message from Colorado is this can happen anywhere. It's terrifying.''

The Republican governor said a council on school youth violence chaired by Public Safety Secretary Jane Perlov was preparing recommendations on how to keep schools safe.

Meanwhile, a Newton-based anti-gun group said the shootings showed the need for gun control laws like the one enacted in Massachusetts last year to be spread nationally.

John Rosenthal, co-founder of Stop Handgun Violence, said "these tragedies will continue to occur'' until federal laws are passed that, among other things, restrict access to guns by children and require training, licensing and registration before purchasing a gun.

Steve Ruel, a spokesman for Gun Owners Action League, the Massachusetts group that lobbies for gun owners, said the shootings were a tragedy. But he didn't think tougher gun laws were the answer.

Ruel said the answer was more parental involvement: "It doesn't take a village. It takes some parents. I don't know of any other way to get a child to do anything. What I see of children, what they need is time.''

"I think the solution is multifaceted here,'' he said.