Preventing Violence and Crime in America's Schools

While major incidents like the shootings at Columbine or Virginia Tech grab headlines, everyday occurrences of bullying, harassment, and physical intimidation in schools regularly impact entire communities, driving children from public schools and destroying faith in public education. Preventing Violence and Crime in America's Schools: From Put-Downs to Lock-Down provides educators, parents, law enforcement officials, and other youth service professionals with a unique perspective on the topic of school violence, offering solutions to the problems that face all schools when it comes to the question of violence and safety.

William L. Lassiter and Danya C. Perry examine the specifics of school violence, opportunities to prevent and intervene, and the importance of planning for a crisis. While most other studies of school violence highlight research or practitioner viewpoints, this work balances insights gained through real-world experience with research on current best practices. The result is a fuller understanding of the problem that enables solutions.

William L. Lassiter worked for the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Center for the Prevention of School Violence in 1997, coming to manage the center, where he coordinated a number of initiatives. These include his coauthoring the scripts for “Critical Incident Response: Recommendations for Schools, Law Enforcement, and Emergency Responders for Putting Together the Tools They Need to Respond to a Crisis” and its accompanying video A Critical Incident: What to Do in the First 20 Minutes; the ‘‘What We Want to Be Is Bully-Free’’ campaign; and the National Evaluation of School Resource Officers. Lassiter received the 2007 Hamilton Fish Institute’s National Award of Service for his outstanding work in the area of school violence prevention.

Danya C. Perry has served as an education consultant for over a decade. He currently works for Communities in Schools of North Carolina as a field services specialist,where he has spearheaded statewide initiatives aimed at school violence prevention, focused specifically on gangs and gang-related activity. Perry has also worked for the nationally recognized Center for the Prevention of School Violence since 1997.