Editors: A complete schedule of events is attached. Media are welcome to attend. Please inform the check-in table inside Interlocken Ballroom B, where the keynote addresses will be held. Hotel address is 500 Interlocken Blvd., Broomfield.
Prominent experts on school violence and school safety from around the state and nation will gather in Broomfield May 1-2 for the third annual Safe Communities -- Safe Schools Conference sponsored by the CU-Boulder Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence.
The conference will bring together about 220 students, school employees, law enforcement officers, researchers, community members and former gang members to discuss recent findings on what works and doesn't work in youth violence prevention.
Registration for the two-day conference at the Omni Interlocken Resort in Broomfield, Colo., is full. No additional participants can be accepted.
Topics will include threat assessment, Homeland Security and the schools, gang awareness, strategic planning, effective violence prevention programs, lessons from the Columbine tragedy and the roles of students and parents in safe schools.
Some highlights of this year's conference include:
* Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 9:50 a.m., keynote address, "Successful Violence Prevention Efforts," by Delbert Elliott, sociology professor and director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Elliott is a nationally recognized authority on youth violence and was the senior scientific editor for the U.S. Surgeon General's Report on Youth Violence in 2001.
* Thursday, 10:10 a.m. to 11:10 a.m., "Threat Assessment," by Randy Borum, associate professor at the University of South Florida. Borum researched all school shootings in the United States for the U.S. Secret Service.
* Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., "Homeland Security and the Schools" by Jim Collins of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Stan Paprocki of the Colorado Department of Education.
* Thursday, 3:25 p.m. to 4:25 p.m., "Gang Prevention" by Regina Heurter, director of the Denver district attorney's Juvenile Diversion Program, and two former gang members.
* Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., keynote address, "Schools and Youth Violence" by Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar.
* Friday, 12:40 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., keynote address, "Columbine: Lessons Learned" by Jon DeStefano, president of the Colorado Association of School Boards and former president of the Jefferson County Board of Education at the time of the 1999 Columbine High School shootings.
The conference is funded by The Colorado Trust and the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice.
For more information call the CU-Boulder Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at (303) 492-1032.