Here's Betsy DeVos' 5-step plan to make schools safer

Betsy DeVos.
(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

School shootings have become a national crisis, and students are fed up with political talk without action. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has a plan to fix the problem, which she shared in a CNN op-ed published Friday.

In it, DeVos said she met with students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and channeled their frustration into "real actions." President Trump is on board with all of them, she added.

Here are the five "constructive solutions" DeVos outlined in her op-ed:

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1. Everyone "must acknowledge and address the growing alienation experienced by too many students,” and work to improve students’ emotional health.

2. The government must expand and reform mental health programs, something the president has pledged support for.

3. Background checks for purchasing firearms must be strengthened. States should be encouraged to adopt a law that allows law enforcement or family members to take away firearms from anyone who is a "demonstrated threat to themselves or others and to prevent those individuals temporarily from purchasing new firearms."

4. Qualified school personnel who volunteer should be trained to use firearms and properly respond to crisis situations. Veterans and retired law enforcement should be recruited into education jobs.

5. DeVos will chair Trump's Federal Commission on School Safety to produce more recommendations.

DeVos acknowledged that these aren't "one-size-fits-all" solutions, but said the commission will keep looking for answers to ensure that "this administration will not abandon America's children." Read the full plan at CNN.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.