UB to Host Eighth Annual Safe Schools Initiative Seminar March 16

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo will host the eighth annual Safe Schools Initiative Seminar on Wednesday, March 16, from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Center for the Arts on the UB North Campus.

This year's program will provide a thorough look at targeted school violence and bullying, which are issues of ever-increasing concern to law enforcement and school officials, as well as parents, guardians and students.

The current generation's ubiquitous means of staying connected has resulted in never-before-seen levels of intense bullying and pervasive bullying tactics. Research reveals a strong link between bullying and violence in schools, with additional emotional and psychological consequences for the bullies, their victims and bystanders. A morning plenary session will provide in-the-moment practical applications to deter bullying -- especially cyber-bullying -- and ways to change a school's culture and attitudes toward bullying. Clinical and behavioral-based insights into the problem of bullying will be reviewed. Special afternoon workshops will be offered that will focus on relevant components of the bullying phenomenon.

The seminar is free and open to all who deal with school safety issues, including grade school, middle school, high school and district faculty, staff (administrators, counselors, psychologists, school resource officers, etc.) and school board members; college/university administrators, police officers and other law enforcement officials; and school transportation professionals.

The morning plenary session, Bullying: Strategies for the Next Generation, will be led by Kelly Zinna, PsyD, a forensic psychologist whose work focuses on threat assessment and violence risk evaluations of middle and high school students. Zinna's experience includes seven years working as a police psychologist in Denver, Colo., where she was involved with the Columbine High School tragedy. Since that time Zinna has presented hundreds of lectures and workshops in 46 states and Canada on preventing school violence and the related problem of bullying. The author of a book and several articles on preventing targeted violence, she has been interviewed by newspapers and radio shows, and has appeared on television shows such as CNN, Fox News and an A&E Investigative Reports series on "Rampage Killers."

The afternoon workshops will include Legal Issues and Cyber-Bullying, presented by Elizabeth D. Carlson, a partner at Hodgson Russ LLP; Bullying as a Pathway to Gang Formation, co-presented by S.R.O. Moses Robinson, president of the Western New York Chapter of the East Coast Gang Investigator's Association and a member of the Rochester Police Department; and Earl Perrin, lead officer of the E-Precinct Gang Suppression Unit, Buffalo Police Department. Additional workshops are Looking at the World inside a School Bus, presented by Michael J. Martin, executive director, National Association for Pupil Transportation; The Raptor Program, a Web-Based School Visitor Management System, co-presented by Daniel Murray, superintendent of the York Central School District in Retsof, N.Y., and Bill Smith, a deputy with the Livingston County Sheriff's Office; and Interpreting Body Language, presented by Mark Frank, professor in the UB Department of Communication and director of the UB Communication Science Center.

Program sponsors include the United States Secret Service, Buffalo Field Office; University at Buffalo (Student Affairs, University Police and the WNY Educational Service Council); National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, New York Branch; United States Attorney's Office, Western District of New York; and the Homeland Security Management Institute. The exclusive seminar sponsor is Utica National Insurance Group.

For more information about the seminar, the speakers and to register, visit https://www.ubevents.org/event/safeschools2011.