School Safety Convention kicks off in Orlando

ORLANDO, Fla. — Hundreds of people from all over the country are coming down to Orlando for the week.

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But instead of visiting the theme parks, they’ll be here to learn about school safety and mass shooting prevention.

“Most of the topics that will be covered this week are really across the board on all aspects of school safety, from the active threats, the active shooter, all the way down to what would happen if we were hit with another pandemic,” said Curtis Lavarello, with the School Safety Advocacy Council, which organizes the event. “The group of folks that we have here this week are school administrators. We have elected school board members. We have law enforcement. We have sheriffs and police chiefs from all over.”

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The school safety convention begins with online safety taking center stage.

Experts, sharing their experience, and visitors, adapting the lessons to their own reality.

“School safety is a constantly evolving thing, and in order to really stay at the top of your game, you need to get the constant updates on things like technology and AI and emergency planning in order to keep the kids safe,” said Michael Rudinsky, representing Howard Public Schools, in Maryland.

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The event is its 20th edition. On Sunday, school officials worked on how to identify threats and how to stop mass shootings from happening. “School safety can’t be something we just address when we have a school shooting,” said Lavarello. “It has to be something that’s 365 days a year. It’s got to be as important as the test scores, important as student attendance.”

According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been more than 300 mass shootings in the United States this year alone.

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For the experts, many of them could have been prevented. “Almost 80% of the time when there’s a school shooting, somebody knew that that person had some concerning behaviors,” said Clayton Cranford, Founder of Cyber Safety Cop. “This system helps school administrators and law enforcement to determine, assess whether they actually are going to commit a threat carried out.”

The conference continues for the rest of the week.

On Friday, a panel who visited the Parkland shooting site, including the parent of one of the victims killed in the massacre, will be sharing their experience regarding school safety.

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