By Richard Weizel
MILFORD, Connecticut (Reuters) – A Connecticut panel charged with finding ways to reduce school violence after the 2012 Sandy Hook School massacre issued a final draft of recommendations on Thursday that includes calls for tougher gun control, improved school design and better mental health care for troubled students.
The report will end a more than two-year process that began after former student Adam Lanza, 20, killed 26 children and educators at the elementary school in one of the most horrific school shootings in U.S. history.
The 16-member Sandy Hook Advisory Commission, appointed by Governor Dannel Malloy after the Dec 14, 2012, massacre, is expected to approve the draft on Friday and send it to the governor for his signature.
The report follows interviews by the commission with dozens of legal, education and mental health experts, Newtown officials and school administrators, as well as families of victims.
It includes proposals for better communication between local and state police, designing new schools to keep out potentially violent intruders and upgrading mental health protocols to provide help for troubled students. Another proposal would restrict all guns sold in the state to no more than ten rounds of ammunition.
The final draft also includes a proposal to require classroom doors be locked from the inside.
Commission Chairman Scott Jackson said the panel will consider adding an introduction and executive summary during its Friday meeting.
(Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Christian Plumb)