Family of Parkland Shooting Victim Pushes for New School Safety Laws

A Nyack family is teaming up with Senator Senator Elijah Reichlin-Melnick and Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski to advocate for a new bill which would require silent alarms to be installed in every public school in New York. “Alyssa’s Law”, named in honor of Alyssa Alhadeff, one of the 17 people killed during the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School, would equip schools with panic alarms for use in an active-shooter situation. Legislators and activists believe these alarms will save lives by reducing the response time of emergency services and providing a covert method of contacting authorities.

“Whoever saves one life saves the world” said Alyssa’s cousin Jadyn Turner, during a press conference to announce the bill. Standing side by side with her father Jordan, Senator Reichilin-Melnick and Assemblyman Zebrowski, the Nyack student  told the press that that quote from the Talmud has stayed with her in the years since the tragic loss of her cousin; the Turner family is championing the legislation in the hopes that it “can save even one life.”

Zebrowski and Reichlin-Melnick share thier sentiment. The duo has redrafted a bill that was originally proposed by former Senator David Carlucci and former Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffe. The updated bill calls for alarms that can be installed cheaply (5,000 dollars per school by their estimates) and can be triggered remotely and discretely via smartphone.

“This is a bill which is going to help students stay safe all across New York State,” said Reichlin-Melnick. The senator stated that several other states have adopted or are considering similar measures and that some schools in the empire state are already equipped with the sort of alarms their proposed law would require.

The state currently has no standardized or recommended procedure for contacting the police during the event of an active school shooting.

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