President Trump, amid his flurry of executive orders last week upon retaking office, quietly shut down the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) School Safety Board, a panel established in the wake of the 2018 Parkland school shooting that left 17 students and staff dead.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York blasted the decision Sunday as a likely violation of the law. He pointed out that the board was made permanent through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, passed in 2022.
Schumer urged the Trump administration and newly confirmed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to immediately reinstate the board, arguing that its work is essential to preventing school shootings.
“Last year alone, there were 330 school shootings, and in response to this tragic number, the Trump administration is now shutting down one of the few efforts aimed at stopping them: the DHS School Safety Board,” Schumer said. “The gun lobby wants the School Safety Board gone, and today, I am saying that the Trump administration cannot bow down, yet again, to the likes of the NRA.”
The DHS School Safety Board, which first convened in October, was composed of school safety experts, civil rights advocates, disability rights leaders, superintendents, and parents of children killed in school shootings. It was tasked with identifying and executing strategies to bolster school safety nationwide.
The board was codified into law under the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which Schumer played a key role in passing.
According to DHS, the board brought together experts in education, child and adolescent health, public safety, law enforcement, cybersecurity, and social work. Members also represented state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, as well as school administrators, faculty associations, disability rights organizations, and the private sector.
Schumer did not mince words on Jan. 26 in his condemnation of the administration’s decision.
“Shutting down the school safety DHS board likely violates the law,” he said. “This action is making it very clear: it’s going to be the gun lobby over saving lives; it’s going to be the NRA over commonsense. So, I am urging the administration to right this wrong and do right by our students—bring the School Safety Board back to DHS right now.”
Education Week, citing a memo obtained from then-acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman, reported that the decision was part of an effort to eliminate “misuse of resources and ensuring that DHS activities prioritize our national security.”
“Future committee activities will be focused solely on advancing our critical mission to protect the homeland and support DHS’s strategic priorities,” the memo read, according to the Education Week report. “To outgoing advisory board members, you are welcome to reapply, thank you for your service.”
