Michele Gay, co-founder of Safe and Sound Schools and mother to a student who was killed in the 2014 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, is attending the Transporting Students with Disabilities and Special Needs (TSD) Conference in November to talk about safety for all students in all educational settings, including the school bus.

At her TSD keynote on Friday, Nov. 9, Gay will discuss “Developmentally Appropriate Safety Education” and how schools can develop safety curriculum and training that supports and accommodates the unique needs of students and staff of all ages, abilities and educational levels. During her keynote, Gay looks to empower student transportation professionals to provide the appropriate kinds of training that will ensure student safety.

She will discuss how transportation can prepare staff to quickly and safely handle situations on or near the school bus, while keeping the physical and psychological safety of the students as the focal goal. As a very visible sign of students’ presence, the school bus can often be a target, and Gay looks to equip student transporters to protect the “rolling classroom” and the students onboard.

Gay began her work in the educational field as an elementary school teacher at the age of 21. She became a mom of three. She described one daughter, Josephine Grace or “Joey” as she was affectionally called, as “especially special” with many unique traits that came along with an autism diagnosis. Gay said she lived the day-to-day experiences of supporting a child with visual impairment, apraxia of speech, fine and gross motor skills. She shared that her daughter always made the most of life and that her goal as a mother and educator was to help her daughter navigate the world with those unique challenges.

Gay was a guest on the School Transportation Podcast, where she shared more about the reason why behind her work for student safety. Listen to the full episode here.

After the devastating shooting Dec. 12, 2014, and Joey’s murder along with that of 19 other 6- and 7-year-old students and six adult school staff members, Gay and her family was faced with the heartbreaking reality of the dangers that students encounter. She then founded Safe and Sound Schools, a national non-profit school safety advocacy and resource center, alongside Alissa Parker, who lost her daughter Emilie in the Sandy Hook shooting. Since then, Gay has been sharing how communities can create a comprehensive and sustainable approach to safety.

An experienced and educated advocate, Gay has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction. She has addressed national audiences through media outlets, schools, law enforcement agencies and more. She continues to be a leading advocate for student safety, inspired by Josephine and all children like her.

Save $100 on main conference registration with the Early Bird Discount, available through Oct.4. The TSD Conference will be held Nov. 6 through Nov. 11 at Embassy Suites Dallas-Frisco Hotel and Convention Center Visit tsdconference.com to register and view the conference agenda, which includes four keynotes and dozens of educational sessions all focused on transportation of students with special needs.

Related: TSD Keynote Speaker Looks to Reveal Power of Praise in Student Transportation
Related: Hands-on Training Opportunities for Student Transporters at TSD Conference
Related: TSD Conference Topics Plan to Cover Unique Aspects of Transporting Students

The post Mother of Sandy Hook Victim Brings Student Safety Message to TSD appeared first on School Transportation News.

UVALDE, TEXAS - MAY 25: A child crosses under caution tape at Robb Elementary School on May 25, 2022 in Uvalde, Texas. According to reports, during the mass shooting, 19 students and 2 adults were killed, with the gunman fatally shot by law enforcement. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

As a former county reporter in northwest Wisconsin, I always tried to find a local angle to a national or regional story.

I’ve been  thinking the two former papers I used to work for – Spooner Advocate and Sawyer County Record – were probably looking for readers who have friends or relatives with some connection to the recent mass shooting Wednesday, Aug. 27, at the Annunciation Catholic Church in South Minneapolis that left two youngsters dead and 21 others injured.

I  Googled the church’s location and realized that I had been just six blocks from it early this spring when I visited the Russian Art Museum. The church is also 10 or 15 minutes north of where my sister, Charlotte, lives.

Later, Charlotte called me and said she and my other sister, Alma, had attended the church for Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve mass. Charlotte mentioned that a neighbor had a daughter who attended the same pre-K-8 Catholic school as the students who were  fired upon.

Without knowing any victims, just the proximity of the church to my previous visit and my sisters’ and the neighbors’ experience, there is some connection I have with that tragedy, be it ever so thin.

A couple of years ago, when I worked for the Sawyer County Record, I did a story on a woman who works in Hayward whose son had been attending Michigan State University when a man went on a short shooting rampage in February 2023 on campus.

It was after doing that story of the local boy to the Michigan State University shooting, that it hit me that more and more of us are having some connection to a gun shooting, especially school shootings.

We may not have witnessed the shooting, and we hopefully didn’t have any loved one injured or traumatized, but still we might be one or two or three or four persons removed from the tragedy, like the  woman whose son was in proximity to the Michigan State shooter.

It’s just logical with more and more of these mass shootings more of us would have these connections.

There are those directly impacted by mass shootings, the victims and their families, but there are scores more that are indirectly connected, and because of those connections the tragedy has more importance. The event becomes less abstract as you hear about a friend’s daughter or niece or cousin who had to hide under her desk to avoid rounds of gunfire echoing through the halls of education. It becomes less abstract as the mother of the Michigan State University student describes her fear when she heard about the gunman and knew her son might be shot.

After a mass shooting happens, we hear people argue  that it’s not the guns causing the deaths but the shooters, and then others advocate for legislation that would keep guns out of the hands of people likely to commit such atrocities.

After a mass shooting, we’ve become too familiar with how this debate over guns unfolds, and many of us are frustrated that very little ever changes.

However, I believe we will have sensible gun legislation so those with mental illnesses don’t have access to a gun, and red flag laws will help law enforcement identify those who are more likely to go on a shooting spree and secure weapons before a tragedy occurs.

I think it is inevitable because attitudes are going to change as more and more of us have these direct and indirect connections to mass shootings.

And a connection to a tragedy changes attitudes.

When drug overdose deaths were a thing that appeared to mostly happen in far-away cities, there wasn’t that much support in rural Wisconsin for attacking the problem. But when overdose deaths began to occur in the suburbs and rural communities, the reality of the drug epidemic hit home, and widespread support for addressing it grew. 

We are slowly, incrementally, each finding some point of connection to a mass shooting just because there have been so many of them: 503 mass shootings in 2024 alone.

The question in my mind is not if the legislation will happen, but how many people will have to die before enough of us, regardless of political affiliation, demand  sensible gun legislation.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appears before the Senate Finance Committee at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Sept. 4, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.  vehemently defended his actions on vaccines and other public health issues under questioning by both Republican and Democratic senators during a contentious hearing Thursday.

Kennedy, confirmed on a mostly party-line vote earlier this year, repeatedly justified firing everyone on an influential vaccine advisory panel, as well as the president’s decision to remove a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director who’d served for less than a month after confirmation by the Senate.

“In your confirmation hearings, you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines. Since then, I’ve grown deeply concerned,” said Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo. “The public has seen measles outbreaks. Leadership of the National Institutes of Health questioning the use of mRNA vaccines. The recently confirmed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fired. Americans don’t know who to rely on.”

Video courtesy of C-SPAN.

Barrasso, an orthopedic surgeon, sought to reinforce support for vaccines to Kennedy during the Senate Finance Committee hearing, saying they “are estimated to have saved 154 million lives worldwide.”

Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician who received several concessions from Kennedy in exchange for voting to confirm him as HHS secretary, raised numerous questions about Kennedy’s behavior. Cassidy is the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Cassidy appeared to box in Kennedy on the COVID-19 vaccine by saying President Donald Trump should receive the Nobel Prize for Operation Warp Speed, which led to the development of the shot during his first term. 

Kennedy agreed Trump should “absolutely” get the prize, leading Cassidy to question why he’d taken actions as HHS secretary to erode trust and eliminate funding for vaccine development activities. 

“It surprises me that you think so highly of Operation Warp Speed when, as an attorney, you attempted to restrict access,” Cassidy said. “It also surprises me because you’ve canceled, or HHS did, but apparently under your direction, $500 million in contracts using the mRNA vaccine platform that was critical to Operation Warp Speed.”

Cassidy said the cancellation represents not only “an incredible waste of money but it also seems like a commentary upon what the president did in Operation Warp Speed, which is to create a platform by which to create vaccines.”

Cassidy also questioned Kennedy’s actions eliminating everyone on the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and replacing them with his own choices. 

“If we put people who are paid witnesses for people suing vaccines, that actually seems like a conflict of interest,” Cassidy said. 

Kennedy disagreed, testifying that “it may be a bias. And that bias, if disclosed, is okay.”

Tillis asks RFK Jr. to respond in writing

North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis asked Kennedy a series of questions but said he wanted the secretary to submit his answers in writing in order to clarify several of his positions. 

“Some of your statements seem to contradict what you said in the prior hearing,” Tillis said. “You said you’re going to empower the scientists at HHS to do their job. I’d just like to see evidence where you’ve done that, and I’m sure that you will have some.”

Tillis said he wanted Kennedy to respond to reports that he’s gone back on his commitments to senators to not do anything “that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking vaccines” and that Kennedy would not “impose my belief over any of yours.”

“That, again, seems to be contradictory to the firing of the CDC director, the canceling of mRNA research contracts, firing advisory board members, attempting to stall NIH funding, eliminating funding for I think a half a billion dollars for further mRNA research,” he said, referring to the National Institutes of Health. 

Tillis said he was having difficulty understanding why former CDC Director Susan Monarez, whom Trump nominated in March and the Senate voted to confirm in late July, had been fired so quickly. 

“I don’t see how you go … from a public health expert with unimpeachable scientific credentials, a long-time champion of MAHA values, caring and compassionate and brilliant microbiologist — and four weeks later, fire her,” Tillis said. 

CDC shooting, Monarez firing probed

Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock questioned Kennedy at length over the firing of Monarez as well as a shooting at the Atlanta-based agency this summer. 

Kennedy testified that he doesn’t believe he criticized Monarez during a meeting in late August over her comments following the CDC shooting that “misinformation can be dangerous.”

During that meeting, Kennedy said he did demand that Monarez fire career CDC scientists but testified he didn’t tell her to accept the recommendations of the vaccine advisory panel without further review.

“What I asked her about is, she had made a statement that she was going to not sign on and I wanted clarification about that,” Kennedy said. “I told her I didn’t want her to have a role if she’s not going to sign onto it.”

Monarez wrote in an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal just hours before the hearing began that during the meeting with Kennedy she “was told to preapprove the recommendations of a vaccine advisory panel newly filled with people who have publicly expressed antivaccine rhetoric.”

“That panel’s next meeting is scheduled for Sept. 18-19,” Monarez wrote. “It is imperative that the panel’s recommendations aren’t rubber-stamped but instead are rigorously and scientifically reviewed before being accepted or rejected.”

Warnock asked Kennedy if he said that the CDC was the “most corrupt federal agency in the history of the world.” 

Kennedy testified he didn’t say that exactly but did say “it’s the most corrupt agency at HHS and maybe the government.” 

Warnock concluded his five minutes of questions telling Kennedy that “it’s clear you’re carrying out your extremist beliefs” and that he represents “a threat to the public health of the American people.”

“For the first time, we’re seeing deaths from children from measles,” Warnock said. “We haven’t seen that in two decades. We’re seeing that under your watch. You are a hazard to the health of the American people.”

Lankford, Daines ask about medication abortion

Several senators, including Oklahoma Republican James Lankford and Montana Republican Steve Daines, asked Kennedy about the ongoing review of mifepristone, one of two prescription pharmaceuticals used in medication abortion. 

Kennedy said he spoke with FDA Commissioner Marty Makary about the topic just yesterday and committed to keeping senators informed, but didn’t appear to know much more than that. 

“I don’t know if they’re going to do an insurance claim study. That’s one way to do it. I don’t know exactly whether they’re doing epidemiological studies or observational studies. I don’t know exactly what they’re doing,” Kennedy said. “But I know I talked to Marty Makary about it yesterday, and he said those studies are progressing and that they’re ongoing. So I will keep your office informed at every stage.”

Kennedy testified that he didn’t know when exactly the studies would be completed. 

The FDA first approved mifepristone in 2000 before updating the prescribing guidelines in 2016 and during the coronavirus pandemic. 

It’s currently approved for up to 10 weeks gestation and can be prescribed via telehealth and shipped to patients. Mifepristone is the first pharmaceutical of medication abortion and is typically followed by misoprostol. 

Medication abortion accounted for about 64% of all abortions in 2023, according to research from the Guttmacher Institute. 

The Supreme Court rejected an effort to limit access to medication abortion last year in a case originally filed by four anti-abortion medical organizations and four anti-abortion doctors that were represented by Alliance Defending Freedom.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the opinion that “federal conscience laws have protected pro-life doctors ever since FDA approved mifepristone in 2000.”

Numerous medical organizations, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Medical Association, wrote briefs to the Supreme Court in that case attesting to the safety and efficacy of mifepristone. 

“The scientific evidence is overwhelming: major adverse events occur in less than 0.32% of patients,” the medical organizations wrote. “The risk of death is almost non-existent.”

Executive director Trish Kilpin in the DOJ’s Office of School Safety promotes the department’s Speak Up, Speak Out program for reporting threats to school safety.

The post For Wisconsin schools, safety is top of mind following recent Minnesota shooting, hoaxes appeared first on WPR.

Police respond at Annunciation School after a man killed two children and injured several others Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025 in Minneapolis. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)

Two children, ages 8 and 10, were killed by a shooter who opened fire outside Annunciation Church in south Minneapolis, where students at the Catholic school were gathered Wednesday for Mass to celebrate the beginning of the school year.

Another 17 people were injured — 14 children and three parishioners in their 80s — and are being treated at area hospitals. One adult and six children were in critical condition Wednesday afternoon, according to Hennepin Healthcare.

Annunciation Principal Matt DeBoer said teachers acted within seconds of gunfire erupting to shelter children under pews.

“It could have been significantly worse without their heroic action,” DeBoer said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. “We lost two angels today. Please continue to pray for those still receiving care. We can’t change the past, but we can do something about the future.”

The shooter, identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, barricaded the door of the church with a wood board and shot dozens of rounds through the window using a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara.

“The coward that shot these victims took his own life in the rear of the church,” O’Hara said.

Outside the school after the shooting, parents were picking up their children, who wore the green polos that are the school uniform.

Susan Ruff, a neighbor whose children attended the school at Annunciation and has a grandson currently enrolled, said she saw the shooting from her window.

She witnessed a man dressed in black, wearing a helmet, with a long gun, shooting at the church from the outside. She heard 25 or 30 gun shots. “It sounded like someone was dropping a dumpster. That loud bang. But I kept hearing it, so I thought, that’s not a dumpster.” Her grandson was unhurt in the shooting.

Westman purchased the weapons legally and did not have a criminal record, O’Hara said. He said law enforcement were not seeking other suspects.

Court records show a Mary Westman, who retired from Annunciation Catholic School in 2021 according to a now-deleted Facebook post, requested a name change for her child from Robert to Robin in 2019 saying “minor identifies as female.” O’Hara said he could not confirm the suspect’s connection to the school or that the suspect changed their name.

O’Hara said investigators believe Westman is behind videos scheduled to post on YouTube on Wednesday morning, which have since been taken down. One video opens with a four-page handwritten screed that begins, “I don’t expect forgiveness … I do apologize for the effects my actions will have on your lives.”

It also showed an arsenal of guns and ammunition with writing on them reading “Where Is Your God?” and “Suck On This!” Other writings, some in Russian, target President Donald Trump and wish death upon Jewish people.

Numerous law enforcement agencies were on the scene including the FBI, ATF and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office.

O’Hara said law enforcement are executing four search warrants, one at the church and three others at residences in the metro area connected to the suspect where firearms are being recovered.

“We are all working tirelessly to uncover the full scope of what happened, to try and identify a motive, why it happened, and whether there are any other further details,” O’Hara said.

Neighbors and former students said they were shaken by the shooting in the typically quiet southwestern Minneapolis neighborhood.

Jack Friedman, 25, went to the school and lives in the area. He said, “You never think that it’s going to happen at the school you went to, but then you start thinking how naïve to believe that. Because it happens everywhere.”

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, speaking at a news conference outside the school, called for action — not just thoughts and prayers, which has become a rote response to mass shootings.

“Don’t just say, this is about thoughts and prayers right now,” he said. “These kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school. They were in a church.”

Vigils are planned Wednesday night for the victims. Annunciation Church announced a prayer vigil at 7 p.m. in the Holy Angels Gym. Anti-gun violence group Moms Demand Action announced a candlelight vigil at 8 p.m. at Minneapolis Lynnhurst Park.

Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com.

UW police are actively investigating the source of the false report. 

The post UW-Madison part of a wave of active shooter hoaxes across US appeared first on WPR.

The mother of the 15-year-old girl who opened fire at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, killing two people before killing herself, has died by apparent suicide.

The post Mother of Abundant Life Christian School shooter dies of apparent suicide appeared first on WPR.

Then-Detective Joseph Mensah testifies before the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety in 2025. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

Detective Joseph Mensah, a  Waukesha County Sheriff’s detective who attracted protests and controversy for his involvement in three fatal shootings over a five year period while employed at the Wauwatosa Police Department (WPD) will resign from the Sheriff’s office. Mensah, hired to the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department in 2021, issued a resignation letter on July 17. In a resignation letter, Mensah said he plans to leave the law enforcement profession all together. 

A version of the letter was posted on social media by Jessica McBride, a contributor to the right-wing media outlet Wisconsin Right Now. Mensah’s resignation will be effective on July 31, according to the letter.

A Waukesha County Sheriffs Department spokesperson sent a slightly different version of the letter to Wisconsin Examiner upon request. “After much consideration, I feel it would be in the best interest of the Sheriffs Department, the community, my family, and my own personal well-being, that I transition out of the law enforcement profession,” Mensah wrote in the letter. “Words can not express how grateful I am that you, Sheriff Severson, along with Inspector Gumm, Deputy Inspector, the command staff, and the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department accepted me and brought me into your family when I needed you most. I am beyond grateful and thankful, that I had the opportunity to serve alongside the men and women of this agency. If there is anything I can do to assist with this process, please let me know.”

Mensah was hired by the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department after resigning from WPD in 2020, following months of protests. After he was  hired by WPD in 2015, Mensah was involved in three fatal shootings. In his first year on the job Mensah shot 29-year-old Antonio Gonzales, who was wielding a sword when officers arrived at his home. Less than a year later, Mensah fatally shot 25-year-old Jay Anderson Jr., who was sleeping in his car in a county park. Mensah said that Anderson lunged for a handgun that sat beside him on the front passenger seat. Four years later in early 2020, Mensah killed 17-year-old Alvin Cole, who was fleeing Mayfair Mall with his friends after being involved in a fight, and brandishing a handgun. Mensah said that Cole attempted to shoot him during the chase. 

The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office declined to charge Mensah in any of those shootings, stating that his actions were either justified or privileged. 

Residents and elected officials in Wauwatosa called for criminal charges against Mensah for the three shootings. When the district attorney declined to issue charges in the Cole shooting, protests ensued and a curfew was declared in Wauwatosa with  protesters confronted by militarized law enforcement.

An independent investigation found that Mensah violated department policies when he gave radio interviews in which  he discussed the Cole shooting, which was still under investigation at the time, and gave misleading information about his fatal shootings, according to the report, authored by attorney Steven Biskupic. 

Mensah’s three shootings in Wauwatosa also became the subject of several lawsuits. In 2021, a John Doe hearing was called to review the Anderson shooting, after which a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge ruled that probable cause existed to charge Mensah with a crime. Special prosecutors appointed to the case, however, declined to pursue charges. 

In 2025, Mensah testified before state legislative committees to advocate for prohibitions against the use of the John Doe law to review fatal shootings by police. Mensah told Wisconsin Examiner that he’d sought a promotion to lieutenant while at the sheriff’s department, but was unsuccessful. 

Another federal civil lawsuit involving the Cole shooting was brought to trial, and a judge found that Mensah and other officers provided contradictory statements. Wisconsin Examiner also found that Mensah and other officers violated policies related to police shooting investigations in the Milwaukee area. The Cole trial in 2025 ended in a hung jury, with a retrial scheduled for early September. 

In a statement to Wisconsin Examiner, a spokesperson for the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department said that agency staff “support Detective Mensah and wish him the best.” 

Attorney Kimberley Motley, who has represented the families of those killed by Mensah and the protesters who supported them, said in a statement to Wisconsin Examiner that the Cole family “is looking forward to the trial that is set in September against Joseph Mensah. Both the Alvin Cole and Jay Anderson family continue to focus on fighting for justice on behalf of their loved ones.”