The biggest hurdle standing in the way of improving the level of safety in North Carolina public schools today is not drugs or gangs, but the age-old problem of bullying.

That’s according to participants at a recent statewide Safe Schools Summit held at Western Carolina University. Their proposal that bullying prevention be made a top priority in N.C. schools is among a series of recommendations included in a policy report issued this week by WCU’s Public Policy Institute, which organized the November gathering.

More than 73 percent of participants called bullying either a problem or a serious problem, said Gordon Mercer, director of the Public Policy Institute. Nearly half of the participants said that bullying prevention is not a high priority for state schools.

“More school-wide training needs to be provided, and teachers, school resource officers and others need to get involved in the establishment of policies to prevent bullying. Many respondents suggested that parental involvement and school counselors were important components, and many said current training in this area is not meeting the needs of schools. Bullying is an important indicator of school safety. If bullying is not identified and dealt with in the early stages, it has the potential to escalate into serious levels of violence”

Some 600 school administrators, educators, law enforcement officers and students gathered at Western in November to listen to national experts on school safety issues and to share ideas on what can be done to make North Carolina schools safer. The event was funded by the N.C. Governor’s Crime Commission and the Horowitz Foundation.

The policy report recommends improvements to training programs for school personnel, and additional alternative schools to meet the needs of students who frequently break the law and threaten school safety.

The policy report also calls for:

° Better communication and collaboration among teachers, administrators, parents, law enforcement officers and social services, with regularly scheduled meetings involving all constituencies.

° Additional funding to put more school resource officers into the schools, and additional training to make those SROs more effective.

° The use of advanced equipment and technology to support school safety, including surveillance equipment in parking lots and other strategic locations.

° Smaller schools and reduced class sizes, which would provide more opportunities for adults and students to develop caring, professional relationships.

° Development of threat assessment teams, which would include law enforcement and educational personnel, to research and make recommendations on ways that individual schools could take actions to prevent violence and deal with safety threats in schools.

Copies of the Safe School Summit policy report are available by calling Western Carolina’s Public Policy Institute at 828.227.2249.

Sponsors of the summit included the Asheville Police Department, 3-C Institute for Social Development, N.C. Center for the Prevention of School Violence, Carolina Institute for Community Policing, N.C. Governor’s Crime Commission, Pi Gamma Mu Honor Society, WCU’s College of Education and Allied Professions, and the Asheville Citizen-Times.