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The 14th Annual Cynthia Lockhart-Mummery Conference: Building Violence-Free Schools and Communities

 

The 14th Annual Cynthia Lockhart-Mummery Conference hosted by Tulare County Child Abuse Prevention Council (CAPC) began with a 2 hour presentation by Alissa Parker, co-founder of Safe and Sound Schools and the mother of a young child lost during the Sandy Hook school mass shooting. The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, United States, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people, including 20 children between six and seven years old, and six adult staff members. 300 attendees including law enforcement, mental health workers, school personnel, and child welfare workers joined Alissa as she retold “that tragic day” and how it led her to develop a Framework for Comprehensive School Safety Planning & Development.

As the morning progressed many of the attendees visited The Lisa Project Exhibit. “The Lisa Project in 10” is a 10-minute, unique multi-sensory experience allowing the visitor to hear, see and experience the reality of the world of child abuse. Through audio narration from a child’s perspective visitors are guided room by room through scenarios depicting abuse. This experience is fully immersing each guest into the world that these children face on a daily basis. The result of this experience is a community that is made more aware with positive and helpful steps given at the end of the tour to protect children and strengthen families.

The conference theme this year was “Building Violence-Free Schools and Communities”. Sponsors for the conference included First 5 of Tulare County and Tulare Youth Service Bureau. Marty Shien, a clinical supervisor at TYSB shared a story about a young man named Clayton Douglas, who went to school with a gun with the intention of committing a mass shooting. Attendees watched a 20 minute video of Clayton “telling his story”. The conference filled room of professionals welcomed Clayton with mixed emotions when Clayton, himself, took the stage for the first time ever to answer questions from the audience. Clayton openly shared his experience with abuse, neglect, violence and dysfunctional relationships that led to that significant day at the age of 13.

Dr. Melissa Reeves, our final speaker for the day, is the Past-President of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). Dr. Melissa Reeves is currently an associate professor at Winthrop University and is a co-author of the NASP PREPaRE School Crisis Prevention and Intervention curriculum. She travels both nationally and internationally training professionals. Dr. Reeves led a 3 hour lecture with group interaction on M-PHAT. This approach involves a Multi-Phase, Multi-Hazards, Multi-Agency, and a Multi-Tiered approach to establishing a comprehensive plan for a safe schools environment that aligns with current response to intervention and positive behavior supports initiatives. This session focused on development of school and district safety and crisis teams and plans; understanding the different components to a comprehensive school safety plan vs. a crisis plan; conducting psychological and physical safety assessments, and establishing a data collection system to enable data-driven decisions.

With this ideal audience of administrators, school mental health professionals, safety and security, SRO's, and anyone else serving on a school safety/crisis team , engagement was evident and many discussed plans for developing comprehensive safety prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery activities at their respective sites.
I think I could safely say that I was not the only one clearly impacted from the very beginning of this day. Mass shootings will continue. This is certain. There are too many guns and too many people in need of help who don’t get it. I recently heard the phrase that “Trauma is the great untold story of America now.”
Since we are clearly unable to stop the endless violence, we must do better to help those suffering from the impact of these events. We also have to care more – about everyone. From what I heard throughout this day and the CLM conference, it sounded like many perpetrators too had untreated trauma. Some had even stated that they just needed someone to talk to.

Can we please start listening?

Amanda Guajardo, Executive Director
Tulare County Child Abuse Prevention Council
1730 W. Walnut, Suite B
Visalia, CA 93277
Office: (559) 735-0456

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