News Conference Will Address Efforts to Prevent School Violence

The city of Findlay’s Reducing Risk Committee and the city and county schools will host a news conference at 3 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 6, at the new Millstream Technology Center on Broad Avenue to share information about the efforts being taken in Hancock County to prevent school violence.

The conference will be held in Millstream’s restaurant. Attendees are asked to park in the front parking lot (at the stop light at College Street) and enter the front doors of the building.

Since 2007, the Findlay city and Hancock county schools, the Hancock County Sheriff, the Findlay Police Department, the Hancock County Board of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services and The University of Findlay (UF) have partnered on a county-wide Reducing Risk in Educational Settings Committee. The committee was formed to develop a best practices plan, which focuses on three primary areas to ensure safe and healthy environments for students to prosper: basic safety, school climate and threat assessment management.

In 2011, the Findlay-Hancock County Community Foundation awarded a one-year grant of $73,600 from the Madeleine T. Schneider Fund to The University of Findlay’s All Hazards Training Center (AHTC), for the development and implementation of customized, Threat Assessment Management (TAM) programs in all eight school buildings in Hancock County with high schools. TAM is a behavioral based school violence prevention technique developed by the U.S. Secret Service to identify threats to their protectees. It has been approved for use in school systems by the Federal Department of Education, and the Federal Department of Homeland Security.

All of the TAM programs are designed to help schools, parents and students prevent violence from occurring on campus by identifying “behaviors of concern” and providing help to those individuals exhibiting these behaviors before a violent act is committed.

Details about the programs and the type of training that has been completed at the city and county schools will be shared on Sept. 6. Questions are welcome.