The center's staff will help people develop individual school-safety plans aimed at identifying and preventing behavior that can lead to violence, officials said. According to the Texas Education Agency, there were 200,000 assaults against students and 18,000 assaults against teachers in the last four academic years. In addition, about 31,000 weapons were confiscated in schools during that period. The new school violence center, to be on the San Marcos university's campus, has been in the planning stages for about three months. Richard Nedelkoff, who heads the criminal justice division of the governor's office, said the center will be sending forms to some 1,100 school districts to gauge their needs.
Plans call for regional training sessions and a statewide school safety summit.
Student leaders will attend a conference to learn about respecting the rights of others and handling disputes peacefully. The center also plans to sponsor a middle school student essay contest on violence prevention and peace. Two weeks ago, Attorney General John Cornyn and Education Commissioner Mike Moses formed a special task force to make recommendations on preventing violence. This site is best viewed using Netscape 4.0 or IE 4.0.