State Rep. DebraLee Hovey (R-112th), who represents Monroe and Newtown in Hartford, has been appointed to a task force as Connecticut seeks to bring about legislative and policy changes in response to the Newtown school shooting.
Hovey will serve on a group charged with examining mental health issues. The group is one of three created under the auspices of the newly formed Gun Violence Prevention and Children's Safety Task Force.
The other groups will be examining gun safety and school safety issues, two of the hot button topics that have developed locally and nationally since the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School took the life of 20 students and six educators.
As part of its work, the task force has scheduled a series of public hearings — all of which will take place in room 2C at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford. The schedule is as follows:
- School Safety: Jan. 25 at 9:30 a.m.
- Gun Safety: Jan. 28 at 10 a.m.
- Mental Health Issues: Jan. 29 at 10 a.m.
A fourth public hearing will take place at Newtown High School on Jan. 30 at 6 p.m.
Ridgefield has already taken steps to improve security at its schools, and more measures are under consideration. Meanwhile, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy also created the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission to look into the aforementioned issues.
The newly created subgroups and their membership are as follows:
Gun Violence
- Sen. Martin Looney, Co-chair
- Rep. Craig Miner, Co-chair
- Rep. Gerald Fox III
- Rep. Stephen Dargan
- Rep. Bob Godfrey
- Rep. Toni Walker
- Rep. Rosa Rebimbas
- Rep. Janice Giegler
- Rep. Dan Carter
- Sen. Eric Coleman
- Sen. John Fonfara
- Sen. Joan Hartley
- Sen. John Kissel
- Sen. Scott Frantz
- Sen. Tony Guglielmo
- Sen. Kevin Witkos
School Safety
- Rep. Andrew Fleischmann, Co-chair
- Sen. Toni Boucher, Co-chair
- Rep. Roberta Willis
- Rep. Patricia Widlitz
- Rep. Diana Urban
- Rep. Tim Ackert
- Rep. Tim LeGeyt
- Rep. Whit Betts
- Rep. Mitch Bolinsky
- Sen. Dante Bartolomeo
- Sen. Andrea Stillman
- Sen. Beth Bye
- Sen. Andrew Maynard
- Sen. Art Linares
- Sen. Mike McLachlan
- Sen. Kevin Witkos
Mental Health
- Sen. Toni Harp, Co-chair
- Rep. Terrie Wood, Co-chair
- Rep. Susan Johnson
- Rep. Cathy Abercrombie
- Rep. Robert Megna
- Rep. Betsy Ritter
- Rep. Prasad Srinivasan
- Rep. DebraLee Hovey
- Sen. Terry Gerratana
- Sen. Gayle Slossberg
- Sen. Joe Crisco
- Sen. Rob Kane
- Sen. Kevin Kelly
- Sen. Joe Markley
- Sen. Jason Welch
