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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Safety First on Education Week in Commonwealth

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Wednesday, November 20, 2013   

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. - With the anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting coming up next month, safety is a coincidental part of this week's American Education Week celebration, begun 92 years ago by the National Education Association.

The NEA and the Massachusetts Teachers Association will co-sponsor a second annual School Safety Summit with the Northwestern District Attorney's office in Northampton.

Despite violent incidents stretching back to the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., NEA president Dennis van Roekel said schools remain the safest places for students to be.

"We need to do everything we can to diminish these horrible things that are happening," he said, "but we also have to recognize how, right now, it is still the safest place for students."

Van Roekel said custodians, cafeteria workers, secretaries, bus drivers and other school workers sometimes are on the front line when schools and students are threatened. He praised the heroic actions of many who have risked their lives. These Education Support Professionals, or ESPs, will be honored by dignitaries who will serve students meals alongside lunchroom staff at John F. Kennedy Middle School in Northampton.

Van Roekel hailed the unselfish acts of some school professionals.

"When you look at the crises we've faced over the years, they're often one of the first people there," he said. "We need to say 'thank you' and to recognize that, no matter what role you play in a school, if you're an adult, you have a responsibility."

In addition to backing state and federal legislation to reduce gun violence and pursuing anti-bullying campaigns in schools, he said the NEA calls for a greater investment in counseling and mental-health services for students.

"Sadly, in these tough economic times, those are the programs that are too often cut," he said, "and this is an opportunity to highlight the importance of those."

On Thursday, Van Roekel will join MTA president Paul Toner at an event in an Everett school featuring celebrities including former Boston Celtics standout Dana Barros and Boston Red Sox mascot Wally the Green Monster.

A schedule of events is online at massteacher.org.


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