HARTFORD, CT - Governor Dannel P. Malloy today announced that the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission, chaired by Hamden Mayor Scott Jackson, will hold its first meeting on Thursday, January 24, during which they will receive information on the status of the Sandy Hook Elementary School investigation and then will hear presentations from experts who were directly involved in the aftermath of the Columbine and Virginia Tech tragedies.
The meeting will begin with remarks by Governor Malloy, who will charge the members with their objectives, followed by Danbury State’s Attorney Stephen J. Sedensky III, who will review the status of the Sandy Hook investigation.
The panel will then hear separate presentations from former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter and University of Virginia School of Law Professor Richard Bonnie, who will each discuss how their states reacted to the Columbine and Virginia Tech shootings, respectively.
At the time of the Columbine massacre in 1999, Governor Ritter was district attorney for Denver and became a member of the Columbine Review Commission, which conducted a review of the tragedy for then-Colorado Governor Bill Owens. Ritter was elected Governor of Colorado in 2007 and served until 2011.
Richard Bonnie is director of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy at the University of Virginia, and serves as chair of the Virginia Commission on Mental Health Law Reform. Following the Virginia Tech tragedy in 2007, he served as a consultant to then-Virginia Governor Tim Kaine’s Virginia Tech Review Panel.
Thursday’s meeting begins at 10:30 a.m. in Room 2C of the Legislative Office Building in Hartford. The meeting will be broadcast live on television and online by the Connecticut Network (CT-N).
The Sandy Hook Advisory Commission is a 16-member panel of experts created by Governor Malloy to review current policy and make specific recommendations in the areas of public safety, with particular attention paid to school safety, mental health, and gun violence prevention. Additional information on the commission can be found on its website at ct.gov/SHAC.
