Making parents accountable for kids with guns

The state Senate goes after some people who might really be responsible for those situations. The school safety bill advanced this week in the state Senate expands the definition of school property so students will be prohibited from taking weapons anywhere NEAR a school, not just into it. The bill also creates the crime of trespassing on a bus and gives more authority to investigate and prosecute bomb threats. St. Charles Senator Steve Ehlmann has added a provision making parents responsible if a child takes a gun to class. Children who take weapons to school can be suspended for as much as a year. But under present law, there’s little that can be done to parents. Ehlmann suggests they be charged with child endangerment, a charge that could mean a year in jail and a thousand-dollar fine. He says that if he were a judge he’d go with the fine–because it doesn’t do much good to take a parent who has done a poor job of parenting anyway, and remove them from the family for a year.