This year marks the five- and 10- year anniversaries of the Sandy Hook and Virginia Tech school shootings, respectively, both of which served as wake up calls to the importance of campus safety. But have schools and universities made progress? Have we really learned our lessons?
To find out, Campus Safety Conference West’s opening day keynotes will take a look back at those events from a victim’s and advocate/educator’s perspective to benchmark the progress made over the past decade in school and college safety attitudes, procedures and responses.
Presenters will share their perspectives and trends to consider when addressing school and university violence and safety moving forward. The keynotes will be delivered by nationally recognized speakers Michele Gay, co-founder/executive director of Safe and Sound: A Sandy Hook Initiative; and Kristina Anderson, executive director of the Koshka Foundation.
Gay lost her daughter, Josephine Grace on Dec. 14, 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary. Nineteen other children and six adults also lost their lives during the attack. Since then, Gay has dedicated her life to being an advocate for improved security and safety in our nation’s schools. This former school teacher will tell her personal story and recount the lessons she learned during and after the tragedy.
Anderson is a survivor of the 2007 Virginia Tech tragedy. She was sitting in a classroom at Norris Hall with her classmates when a gunman entered the room and committed one of the worst acts of campus violence in history. Shot three times during the ordeal, Anderson will share her candid, first-hand account of the tragedy, the journey towards recovery and her mission to educate others in how to take personal accountability to plan and help prevent violence within our institutions of learning.
Immediately following Anderson and Gay’s keynotes will be an expert panel discussion featuring FBI Special Agent Jeffrey Cugno, UCLA PD’s Lt. Mark Littlestone and school security consultant Paul Timm, as well as Anderson and Gay.
Day two’s keynote speaker will be Jim Bennett, Central Oregon Community College’s former chief/interim director of public safety. In his presentation, he will cover the lessons he and his department learned when one of his officers was accused of murder.
Day two of Campus Safety Conference West will also feature the following in-depth workshops:
- Clery Act Compliance: Creating Your Annual Security Report
- Role Playing Emergency Tabletop Exercises
- Leading Through Communication: When ‘It’ Hits the Fan
To register for Campus Safety Conference West, visit www.CampusSafetyConference.com.
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