Ohio Safe Schools Summit Emphasizes Proactive, Preventative Approach to School-Related Violence More than 700 Education and Law Enforcement Officials Attend Conference Columbus Officials who responded to the Columbine High School shooting joined experts from across the country today at a Safe Schools Summit sponsored by Governor Bob Taft and Attorney General Betty D. Montgomery. With a new school year beginning, more than 700 law enforcement officials and educators met in Columbus to discuss ways to keep Ohio schools safe and to share different approaches to implementing a new law requiring schools to adopt a comprehensive school safety plan. Montgomery and Taft addressed the conference attendees and the media today at the Adam s Mark Hotel in downtown Columbus. This is not a summit about schools. Violence is not just a school problem.
Violence is a community-wide concern.
This week s summit brings law enforcement and education professionals together to plan effective programs that stop violence before it occurs. It allows education and law enforcement officials to discuss practical models of local and national programs that are working. It also helps explore other options for preventing violence in the classroom such as getting students involved in reporting school crime, conflict resolution and peer mediation, and early intervention for elementary truancy. Taft and Montgomery opened the summit today followed by an address from Dr. Pamela Riley, executive director of the National Center for Prevention of School Violence. Dr. Riley is North Carolina s coordinator of Youth For Justice, a national law-related education project.