Communities to Respond to School Violence at the 3rd National Student Safety and Security Conference

Online, March 8, 2010 (Newswire.com) - The 3rd Annual National Student Safety and Security Conference will be held on April 15-16, 2010 at Four Points by Sheraton Orlando Studio City in Orlando, Florida. The event will feature real-world simulations of community response to school shootings and related tragedies.

It is an event inviting leaders representing every sector of society to model a community process to help stamp out all forms of school violence, including shootings, bullying, dating violence, vandalism, gang activity, and catastrophic events such as school massacres.

In addition, special workshops will explore new community resources to fight teenage suicide, alcohol and drug abuse, and aggressive driving among high school and college students.

Compelling case studies will be presented in the conference, offering new important findings on headline-grabbing incidents of school violence, their cost to society, and how they have impacted local prevention, preparedness, response and recovery processes.

The tabletop exercises, skillfully moderated by risk communicators, will encourage extended audience participation and explore effective methods of communication, coordination and collaboration at the local level.

Role-playing topics include:

Response: activating the emergency response infrastructure, warning signals, student complaints, first response, protecting targets and hostages, types of violence, survival techniques, news by cell phone, regaining control, chain of command, emergency response routes, evacuation procedures, school closings, notifying parents, anticipating escalation, law enforcement information sharing, medical procedures, dealing with the media, reaction on the Internet.

Recovery: overcoming fear of returning to class, debriefings, victim needs, survivor needs, families of offenders, call-in lines, grief counseling, health services and resources, statements to students and parents, academic support, investigation procedures, removing names, funerals and anniversaries, signals for closure, how to orient new students and their families.

Prevention: School Crime Watch, drug-free zones, gun-free zones, Zero-tolerance messages, gang apparel and student dress codes, mentoring, parent cooperation, law enforcement resources and presentations, information kits and advisories, engaging the business sector, restrictions in hallways, locker areas, bathrooms, parking lots, cafeteria and other high-risk areas.

Preparedness: What you can do right now, assessing threat and potential victims, designating crisis planning and crisis management teams, exercising the student safety plan, reviewing civil and criminal options, patrols and security systems, video monitoring, crime maps, creating a school safety who's who, photo ID database, including private sector resources, dealing with outside threats, media relations, legislative actions, town hall meetings, releasing information, crisis kits, preparing the lines of communication, sharing best practices, taking preemptive action.

Invitation:

In response to the nationwide alarm over youth violence in our schools, the 3rd National Student Safety and Security Conference invites high school and university administrators, campus security officers, mental health professionals, emergency management experts, first responders and law enforcers, as well as other experts to meet on April 15-16, 2010 in Orlando. Our purpose is to create an ad hoc multi-sector crisis management consortium during the event, to be studied as a model by communities around the country.

Speakers will help attendees develop effective action plans that are unique to their own communities and engage the widest range of local stakeholders to make our high schools and college campuses safe and secure -- the way learning environments really should be.

The 3rd NSSSC is organized by New-Fields Exhibitions, Washington, DC international specialists in emergency planning events and disaster recovery conferences.

We are the organizers of the First & Second National SSSC, attended by high school and university administrators, campus security officers, mental health professionals, emergency management experts, first responders and law enforcers, as well as other experts from around the world. The event was covered by CBS News as well as other leading media networks. Our school safety materials are reviewed by state legislators and experts from various government agencies, private sector and academic community.

For expedited registration and other information, contact 202-536-5000 or email [email protected]. To learn more about latest conference developments, please visit: www.new-fields.com/3rd_nsssc