21-02-2025
NM lieutenant governor announces support for 'office of school safety'
Feb. 20—Lt. Gov. Howie Morales called on educators to help him support proposed legislation to establish a Department of School Safety and a "czar" who would oversee it.
Morales said during the second annual New Mexico Safe School Summit on Wednesday that Rep. Brian Baca, R-Los Lunas, the ranking member of the House Education Committee, would sponsor the measure.
"We can have you as professionals communicate with that office and not have so much burden placed on yourselves and your shoulders," Morales said in remarks at the Santa Ana Star Casino Hotel in Bernalillo. "I think it would be absolutely instrumental."
Morales' comments during the second day of the statewide conference, which concluded Thursday, came as Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is asking lawmakers to approve recurring funds in the public school budget for ongoing and further school safety measures. At the same time, lawmakers have introduced a comprehensive crime package, known as House Bill 8, co-sponsored by Baca, that would include make a threat of a school shooting a fourth-degree felony. The legislation, with co-sponsors, Reps. Joy Garratt, D-Albuquerque and Andrea Reeb, R-Clovis, passed the Senate Judiciary Committee 7-1 on Wednesday.
Michael Coleman, communications director for Lujan Grisham, said Wednesday the Governor's Office is reviewing Baca's proposal on a Department of School Safety.
A spokesperson for the New Mexico Public Education Department referred the Journal to the governor's response to Baca's legislation.
Baca was not available for an interview Wednesday, but his office provided a prepared statement from him saying he is filing a memorial. The term describes a "formal expression of legislative desire," but does not have the same effect as law, according to the Legislature's website.
The memorial will study the creation of a new department under the Department of Public Safety or Homeland Security to make a Department of School Safety, according to Baca.
"This would allow school districts to be proactive in securing their schools and would provide them with resources," Baca said.
Lawmakers will study the creation of a new department and could file legislation to establish it depending on the findings, he said.
Ferlin Clark, education administrator with the Navajo Nation's Department of Diné Education, spoke with Morales following his remarks. Clark said in an interview he thought a Department of School Safety should be a Cabinet-level agency, and it cannot come soon enough.
"Just have somebody to take that leap and work with us," Clark said. "These things are not in the future; they're happening right now."
Morales said in an interview Wednesday that Baca's memorial was proposed following conversations with the PED and a public safety committee.
Aside from not overburdening schools, the office would provide "consistency" to schools in responding to safety incidents, said Morales, a former teacher.
