Speaker Michael Madigan Announces Panel To Prevent School Shootings In Illinois
Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, listens to lawmakers debate while on the House floor during veto session at the Illinois State Capitol Wednesday,
Psychologists and other experts will work with a bipartisan Illinois House task force to study recommendations on what Illinois can do to prevent situations like the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School by a young man whose mental health went untreated.
Speaker of the Illinois House Michael Madigan announced that he's forming the new panel. He says there have been too many shootings at schools across America.
While Illinois' budget will be the number one issue for legislators in the coming year, House Speaker Michael Madigan has another issue he wants to focus on. Amanda Vinicky has more.
It's been two years or so since 26 people --- most of them young children -- died in a massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
The shooter was 20-year-old Adam Lanza.
A report studying him was released late last year by Connecticut's child advocate office; it shows problems identifying and treating his mental illness.
During his inauguration speech, Speaker of the Illinois House, Michael Madigan said, "The report indicates some real problems in the mental health and educational systems in terms of identifying mental problems that Lanza had as he moved through school."
Madigan, says he's calling legislators and mental health experts to serve on a task force, to study the Connecticut report to discuss how to prevent what he calls, "A Sandy Hook in Illinois."