Keynote Presentations
Keynote Speaker Abstracts
Chief Philip J. Baca, Commerce City Police Department
Legal Issues Related to School Safety
This presentation reviews legal issues related to school safety, including recent court cases as well as previously decided cases involving the public schools' authority over students. Constitutional concerns and limitations related thereto will be reviewed.
Dewey G. Cornell, Ph. D
A Rationale and Research Basis for Threat Assessment
This presentation outlines common misconceptions and problems in preventing school violence, reviews the scientific evidence in support of school-based violence prevention, the rationale for threat assessment, and my peer-reviewed research on the Virginia threat assessment model.
Participants will learn common misconceptions about school violence and the scientific basis for school-based violence prevention and the rationale for threat assessment, how it differs from profiling, and the research evidence in support of the Virginia model.
Terrence L. Freeman, Ph. D
Our Greatest Resource: Mentoring Matters
The mentoring relationship is a key factor in youths' successful transition to adulthood. The accelerating pace of daily life along with the changing nature of communities and families makes mentoring even more important to the growth and development of youth. Effective mentoring does not happen by accident and the need is too critical for trial and error approaches. This presentation examines the responsibilities and best practices of effective mentoring relationships and programs.
William Lassiter, MPA
From Put Downs to Lockdowns: Preventing Violence In and Out of Schools
This presentation reviews school violence and school violence prevention by providing participants with a firm understanding of past, current and future trends. Participants will learn about the youth violence continuum and how to incorporate best practices related to the continuum into their school environments, including overviews of the characteristics of effective school violence prevention initiatives.