<< Back 9/18/02 School violence prevention focus of Safe School Summit at WCU SMN With teachers and students across North Carolina settling into the classroom routine of early autumn, parents are turning their thoughts to such school matters as books and supplies, lunch boxes and bus schedules, homework and teacher conferences. Unfortunately, in the aftermath of shootings at Columbine High School and elsewhere, parents and teachers must add guns, knives and pipe bombs to the list of school concerns of the 21st century. An upcoming statewide summit at Western Carolina University, funded by a grant from the N.C. Governor’s Crime Commission, will examine ways to prevent school violence. The Safe School Summit, being organized by Western Carolina’s Public Policy Institute, will bring together state and national experts to share first-hand knowledge of school safety issues and insights into what happens when violent acts do occur on school grounds. The daylong conference will be held Thursday, Nov. 14, in the Liston B. Ramsey Regional Activity Center at Western. Leaders from government, education and law enforcement sectors are expected to take part in discussions on topics such as the expanding roles of school resource officers, safe school planning, bullying and threat assessment. Among the scheduled speakers for the conference is Marilyn Saltzman, director of communication for Jefferson County Schools in Colorado, a school system that includes Columbine High School, site of the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. Saltzman will address “Lessons from the Columbine Tragedy.” Also on the program will be two agents from the U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center, Mark Alexander and Karen Damato, who will give a presentation designed to serve as a guide to school administrators and law enforcement officers for managing threatening situations and creating safe school climates. Calvin Hodnett, policy analyst with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, will talk about safe school funding opportunities. Melissa DeRosier, president of the 3-C Institute for Social Development in Cary, will discuss “The Identification and Prevention of Bullying,” and Joanne McDaniel, director of the Center for Prevention of School Violence of the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, will address “Safe School Planning.” N.C. Gov. Mike Easley has been invited to give the keynote address, and George Sweat, secretary of the N.C. Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, also is scheduled to speak. Other presenters will include Virgil Smith, publisher of the Asheville Citizen-Times; Will Annarino, chief of the Asheville Police Department; and faculty members from Western’s departments of political science and public affairs, criminal justice, and educational leadership and foundations. In addition to the N.C. Governor’s Crime Commission, major conference supporters are the Horowitz Foundation and the Carolina Institute for Community Policing. Conference sponsors include the Asheville Citizen-Times, 3-C Institute for Social Development, Asheville Police Department and Western Carolina University’s College of Education and Allied Professions, Public Policy Institute and Pi Gamma Mu Honor Society. Registration for the summit is now under way. The registration fee of $16 includes lunch, refreshments and materials. For more information or to register, contact Gordon Mercer, director of the Public Policy Institute, at 828.227.2249.