During a recent school training presentation, a participant asked how I became involved with school safety and violence prevention. The answer was quite simple.

My entire career has focused on risk prevention. I’ve worked as a counselor, a district ATODA Coordinator, and a prevention consultant. I have always held fast to the belief that if we do the work on the front end, we will see reduced heartache and require fewer hours and dollars for intervention down the road.

Frederick Douglass believed this long ago. In 1855, he wrote,
“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”

Why School Safety is My Focus

I believe in building assets for all children and teens. The Search Institute’s research has shown that the greater the number of assets we have, the less likely we are to engage in high-risk behavior.

I also believe that building assets results in decreased likelihood of engaging in behavior that puts others at risk. Gavin de Becker refers to these assets at inhibitors. The greater the number of inhibitors to violence that exist in someone’s life, the less likely they are to take violent action.

I attended Gavin de Becker’s Advanced Threat Assessment & Management Academy a few years ago, but my interest in learning how to prevent school violence started fifteen years ago when I heard Dr. Randy Borum speak. That day, I learned that there are things we can do to prevent violence. There are behaviors we can observe and actions we can take before things get to that point. From that moment on, I knew I had to do this work. Like the other types of prevention to which I had dedicated my career, violence could be prevented! It was an epiphany that changed the course of my career. Through student, staff and parent training, helping districts learn & develop threat assessment practices, and attending to all facets of school safety, I am dedicated to doing all I can to make the world safer, one school at a time.

If you have questions about how to improve your school’s safety, consider a no-cost, no-obligation consultation. Simply contact me here.