Can two little words solve our school safety crisis?

The Washington Post published an in-depth article on school shootings last week. It’s a long but worthwhile read. Some of the findings parallel the school safety study I wrote about two weeks ago. Among the findings:

Saturday’s student-led March for Our Lives protests called for measures that might have prevented the Parkland shooting but wouldn’t have stopped others. Banning rifles wouldn’t prevent the majority of deaths. Some lawmakers want to put a police officer at every school, but that hasn’t helped prevent past shootings. Installing metal detectors on all campuses sounds like a good safety measure, but shooters have managed to get past or around those plenty of times. As for raising the legal age to purchase guns, most teen shooters don’t own the weapons they use.

These statistics illustrate the difficulty of legislating a solution to a pervasive societal sickness. Every proposed solution addresses the symptoms but ignores the root of the problem: The desperate hopelessness and futility that drives some people to believe killing offers their only chance for significance, whether that means wiping out one life or dozens.

Kay Coles James, president of The Heritage Foundation, put it this way: “The knee-jerk answer by many liberal is ‘ban guns.’ But I think the questions we face are just too complex to be resolved by two little words.”

Jim Piazza speaks in front of a photo of his son, Timothy Piazza, in Bellefonte, Pa., on Friday. Associated Press/Photo by Abby Drey/Centre Daily Times

Judge dismisses manslaughter charges in pledge death case

A Pennsylvania judge on Wednesday threw out the most serious charges against 11 former Penn State fraternity members in the nation’s most extensive and closely watched hazing case.

Pennsylvania District Judge Allen Sinclair ruled prosecutors do not have enough evidence to pursue involuntary manslaughter charges in the death of 19-year-old Timothy Piazza. Six of the defendants saw the charges against them dismissed completely, while the other five will go to trial on lesser charges of furnishing alcohol to minors and conspiracy to commit hazing.

This is the second time Sinclair has thrown out charges in the case. After a similar decision in September, prosecutors refiled charges in November and added new offenses to the list. Sinclair will consider those new charges in May.

This month’s hearing featured more details about the incident, provided in part by previously deleted security camera footage. On Friday, a forensic pathologist testified Piazza could have survived if the fraternity members had gotten him help sooner. The security camera footage recovered by the FBI after one of the fraternity members erased it, shows the young men serving pledges drink after drink. Piazza consumed 18 drinks in about 82 minutes. He eventually fell down the basement stairs and spent the night on the fraternity house's first floor. He ended up back in the basement the next morning, with his head on the floor in between his arms.

Members of Beta Theta Pi carried him upstairs about two hours later but waited another 40 minutes to call an ambulance. He later died at a hospital from severe head injuries, including a skull fracture, and a shattered spleen that caused massive abdominal bleeding. —L.J.

Jim Piazza speaks in front of a photo of his son, Timothy Piazza, in Bellefonte, Pa., on Friday. Associated Press/Photo by Abby Drey/Centre Daily Times

Puerto Rico embraces charter schools

Puerto Rican lawmakers are pushing ahead with a plan to approve charter schools on the island, despite virulent opposition from the local teachers union. Under the plan Gov. Ricardo Rosselló is expected to sign, nonprofit organizations can open charters in new locations or apply to convert existing public schools to charters. Education officials say the move will help reform a system already struggling before Hurricane Maria drove many families to relocate to the U.S. mainland, leaving classrooms empty. Puerto Rico’s reforms also include a small number of vouchers that will help some low-income students and those with disabilities attend private schools. The island’s charter embrace has drawn comparisons to New Orleans, which turned almost all of its public schools into charters after Hurricane Katrina. The New Orleans education experiment had mixed results, an outcome charter advocates blame on over regulation. When he announced his charter plan in February, Rosselló emphasized the necessity of flexibility and innovation: “In Puerto Rico, we have extraordinary talent, intelligence, and capacity in our students and teachers. What we lack is a system that lets us develop these talents.” —L.J.

Arizona voters get final say on school choice plan

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled last week that voters should be allowed to consider a measure repealing an expansion of the state’s school choice program. Last year, lawmakers narrowly voted to open the Empowerment Scholarship Account to all students, making it the most expansive school choice program in the country. Opponents collected enough signatures on a petition to get a repeal initiative on the November ballot. School choice supporters insisted the petition language contained inaccurate information and fought the ballot measure in court. Now both sides will refocus efforts on the November election. It’s a battle sure to draw big donors and lots of outside interest. Meanwhile, Arizona teachers are waging a separate campaign for better pay and school funding. If they continue to stage walkouts that cut into education time and leave parents scrambling to find childcare during the workday, they might find themselves with fewer supporters on Election Day. —L.J.