#SchoolSafety Archives - Safe and Sound Schools

Historic event will bring together the nation’s renowned school safety experts, thought leaders, and school-based crisis survivors to Houston, March 29-30, 2019

Newtown, Conn. – Feb. 28, 2019 – Safe and Sound Schools, a national school safety non-profit founded by Sandy Hook parents, today announced it will host the National Summit on School Safety on March 29-30, 2019. The event, co-hosted by Region 4 Education Service Center, will take place at the Region 4 ESC McKinney Conference Center in Houston, Texas.

The National Summit on School Safety is the premier gathering of the foremost authorities on school safety. The intensive, interactive two-day conference will cover the key areas essential to comprehensive school safety with inspirational keynotes, leadership round tables, workshops, and hands-on learning activities.

Featured speakers include Alissa Parker, co-founder of Safe and Sound Schools, Dr. CJ Huff, retired superintendent of Joplin Schools, and Michele Gay, co-founder of Safe and Sound Schools.

“This first-ever event truly spans all areas of school safety to provide the most comprehensive coverage of safety issues our schools face today: mental and behavioral health; school climate and community; health and wellness; operations and emergency management; physical environment; and school law, policy, and finance,” said Michele Gay, co-founder and executive director at Safe and Sound Schools. “By bringing together the nation’s experts in each of these disciplines, the National Summit on School Safety offers actionable takeaways, tools, and resources school communities can start implementing immediately.”

Featured speakers at the 2019 National Summit on School Safety include:
● Michele Gay & Alissa Parker, Sandy Hook Mothers and Co-Founders of Safe and Sound Schools
● Dr. CJ Huff, education advocate and retired superintendent of Joplin Schools
● Frank DeAngelis, Retired Principal of Columbine High School
● Patrick Ireland, Columbine Survivor
● Lisa Hamp, Survivor of the Virginia Tech Shooting and School Safety Advocate
● Dr. Lina Alathari, Chief of the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center

“We are witnessing a renewed focus on school safety efforts and more demand for the programs and resources we provide,” said Gay. “This Summit is an extension of Safe and Sound School’s mission to educate and empower all stakeholders, and ultimately, ensure the safest learning environment for our youth.”

For more information about the Summit, sponsorship opportunities, or to register, visit the website.

Summit Partners
Crime Stoppers of Houston (Premier Partner), Allegion, Amulet Ballistic Barriers, Axis Communications, Campus Safety Magazine (Media Partner), CrisisGO, The Hackett Center for Mental Health, H&H Medical Corporation, Huper Optik Security Window Films, Johnson Controls, NaviGate Prepared, PBK, Raptor Technologies, Scholar Chip, and Status Solutions.

About Safe and Sound Schools
Michele Gay and Alissa Parker founded Safe and Sound Schools in 2013, following the tragic deaths of their children at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Safe and Sound Schools works with school communities and mental health, law enforcement, and safety professionals to create and ensure the safest possible learning environment for all youth. The non-profit organization delivers crisis-prevention, response, and recovery programs, tools, and resources, backed by national experts, to educate all members of the school community, from students and parents, to teachers and administrators, to law enforcement and local leaders. Winner of the 2015 New England Business Association Innovation Award for nonprofits, Safe and Sound Schools continues to answer the growing needs of school communities with custom programs, assessments, and training, reaching schools in every state in the country. For more information, visit safeandsoundschools.org.

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Media Contact:
Azia Celestino
Safe and Sound Schools
acelestino@safeandsoundschools.org

May marks the fifth anniversary of our organization’s start, and it was important to us to mark the occasion with something meaningful to show our progress and highlight opportunities for improvement in school safety. True to our mission, we wanted to create something useful and practical, with the potential for immediate benefit to communities throughout the country.

From this need, we developed the idea to issue a report on “The State of School Safety” to provide insights and bring to light perspectives from parents, students, educators (teachers, administrators, staff, mental wellness professionals, and SROs), and the general public. After all, school safety isn’t one person’s job – we all share in the responsibility to keep our students safe.

In addition, as you know, the Straight-A Safety Improvement model starts with “assess” as the first step. The State of School Safety Report is an assessment of sorts… the first collective step we took on behalf of school communities throughout the country. Let’s face it, if we don’t have a good handle on what is going on, how can we really address it?

The State of School Safety Report illustrates several school safety issues communities need to address, such as communication between educators and other stakeholders (particularly parents and students), student dissatisfaction with current safety conversations and actions at their schools, the need to broaden our current narrow view of safety issues and gain more input from the entire school community, and finally, dive deeper into the unique challenges of smaller schools.

We know there is no one-size-fits-all approach to school safety, but we hope you can use this report to start a conversation in your community. See if our national findings ring true for your school, or if your specific school community has other school safety priorities. You can read a summary of the research in our press release, or download the full report at safeandsoundschools.org/research. Thank you for all you do to improve the safety in our schools.

We know that you, too, are committed to the safety of the entire school community – where your child, or a child you know, goes to school – and beyond. If you have never supported our sweeping efforts to address the safety of schools across the complete spectrum, and in ways that reach every single school community, would you consider doing so today? A donation in any amount sustains our mission of making all of our schools safe and sound. If you would like to make a donation to help us mark our fifth anniversary, you can do so by clicking the button below. Thank you.

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