Attorney General Bill Lockyer and Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin Release Final Safe Schools Task Force Report

Report Includes Eight Recommendations and 46 Strategies to Improve School Safety

Monday, June 12, 2000
Contact: (916) 210-6000, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov

(SACRAMENTO, CA) – Attorney General Bill Lockyer and Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin today released the Safe Schools Task Force Final Report outlining a comprehensive set of recommendations and specific strategies for safer schools in California.

“The Task Force’s recommendations are well-conceived ideas that will help guide legislative, law enforcement and educational efforts to improve school safety,” Lockyer said. “Our children deserve a school environment that is free of violence and fear. Through increased school and law enforcement partnerships and implementation of these recommendations we can help prevent tragedies and also improve our children’s educational experience.”

“The report recognizes the significance of school officials and the law enforcement community working together to improve the safety of our school campuses,” Eastin said. “It offers a proactive blueprint for 21st century school safety strategies. The recommendations will serve as a guide to implement sensible and reasonable programs and approaches that will continue to improve the safety of our school campuses.”

Created last year, the Safe Schools Task Force was assigned the task of identifying strategies and programs for improving school safety and developing partnerships between schools and law enforcement. The Task Force’s Final Report includes eight recommendations and 46 strategies developed from extensive research and numerous interviews conducted over the past year among Task Force members and other education and law enforcement representatives.

The Task Force provided recommendations to the Attorney General and the Superintendent as a framework to advocate for and implement school safety programs. The Final Report will be distributed to state legislators, local law enforcement agencies and school districts for their use in developing programs and implementing strategies for improved school safety.

The Task Force’s recommendations include specific strategies to:

* promote strong and positive relationships between teachers and students and between students and each other,
* expand the safe school planning process,
* increase law enforcement and probation officers as partners on school campuses,
* strengthen the capacity of the Attorney General and State Superintendent of Public Instruction’s School/Law Enforcement Partnership Cadre,
* provide positive youth development activities that contribute to the improvement of their schools and community,
* establish strong accountability measures for school safety community partnership programs,
* identify, fund and disseminate information about best practices and model programs for safe schools,
* and work with various institutions to include school safety knowledge and skills.

The Attorney General and Superintendent’s 23-member Safe Schools Task Force was co-chaired by San Mateo County Sheriff Don Horsley and Sandra McBrayer, Executive Director of The Children’s Initiative based in San Diego. Other Task Force members represented education, law enforcement, community groups and youth, including special representatives from the Office of Criminal Justice Planning and the Governor’s Secretary of Education.

The Task Force also helped the Attorney General and Superintendent create a new tool, the Crisis Response Box,developed to help every California school prepare for quick and effective responses to a critical incident on campus. Last month, the Crisis Response Box Guide was distributed, or made available, to every elementary, middle and high school in the state.

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