Standing Up for School Transparency and Safety

For Immediate Release                                                                                           

March 15, 2023

Contact: Rep. Rick Gundrum                                                                                   

(608) 237-9158

Madison, WI – Yesterday, Representative Rick Gundrum (R-Slinger) voted for two bills designed to improve transparency and safety in Wisconsin’s schools. Today, he released the following statement:

“Students and their families deserve a safe environment when it comes to their education. They cannot properly learn important subjects like reading, math, and social studies if there are violent disruptions in the classroom. Unfortunately, Wisconsin’s Speak Up and Speak Out school violence tip line has received nearly 2,000 calls in the 2021-2022 school year. That is an increase of 15% from the previous school year.

“The two bills I voted for today will address the increase in violence at our schools. Assembly Bill 53 will require high schools to collect statistics on a variety of crimes. These include homicides, sexual assault, burglary, and battery. That information will be sent to the Department of Public Instruction for its annual report cards.

“Assembly Bill 69 will set a threshold that will require a school resource officer to be employed by the school. The threshold will be if at least 100 incidents take place on public school grounds and if 25 of those incidents led to an arrest, then that school must hire a school resource officer before the start of the next school year. This bill will help decrease rising violence taking place in high-risk schools.

“I am happy to have joined my Republican colleagues in voting for both items of legislation and I hope Governor Evers signs these common sense measures into law if they come to his desk.”

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