The following University of Colorado at Boulder faculty and staff are available to comment on various aspects of the 10th anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings:
o Delbert Elliott, director of the CU-Boulder Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence and distinguished professor emeritus of sociology, is an expert on juvenile violence and school safety and was the senior scientific editor of "Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General" issued in 2001. Elliott can be reached at 303-735-2146 or delbert.elliott@colorado.edu.
o Jane Grady, assistant director of the CU-Boulder Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence and center spokeswoman. Grady can be reached at 303-735-2063 or jane.grady@colorado.edu.
o Bill Woodward, director of training for the CU-Boulder Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence and former director of the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice. Woodward can be reached at 303-735-0538 or bill.woodward@colorado.edu.
o Sabrina Arredondo-Mattson, project director of the Safe Communities-Safe Schools Initiative, can discuss current school violence prevention efforts. Arredondo-Mattson can be reached at 303-735-1633 or sabrina.mattson@colorado.edu.
o Ken Foote, a professor in the CU-Boulder geography department, has visited hundreds of sites that have been scarred by violence or tragedy in the United States and abroad and is the author of "Shadowed Ground: America's Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy." He can discuss how people memorialize tragic events. Foote can be reached at 303-492-6760 or K.Foote@colorado.edu.
The CU-Boulder Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence continues to assist schools, communities and policymakers in their understanding of juvenile violence and safe school planning since the Columbine tragedy on April 20, 1999. The center is directed by Elliott, a nationally renowned violence prevention expert. Some of the center's major school violence prevention efforts over the past 10 years are:
Safe Communities-Safe Schools Initiative -- The center led this statewide effort, begun in 1999 after the Columbine High School tragedy, to provide safe school planning to Colorado schools. Funded by The Colorado Trust and a consortium of education associations, the initiative provides informational resources and training and technical assistance for safe school planning, free regional training opportunities, and a free online school climate survey and report for all Colorado schools serving grades 3 through 12. More information is posted at .
Bullying Prevention -- The center launched the Colorado Anti-Bullying Project in 2001 to provide bullying prevention awareness, resources and an information line. It also promotes the Bullying Prevention Program as one of its 11 model Blueprints for Violence Prevention program. The program reduces bullying up to 50 percent.
Blueprints for Violence Prevention -- Since 1996, the center has assessed more than 800 violence prevention programs and identified 11 model and 17 promising programs based on a rigorous, scientific standard for certifying exemplary programs. The Blueprints programs inform schools and policymakers about those programs that have been proven to be effective. Descriptions of all the certified programs are posted on the center's Web site at .
The Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence is part of CU-Boulder's Institute of Behavioral Science. Founded by Elliott in 1992, the center's long-term mission is to link research to practice by informing practitioners and policymakers about the causes, consequences and prevention of violence by providing an information clearinghouse, basic research and technical assistance services.
For further assistance contact Peter Caughey in the CU-Boulder Office of Media Relations and News Services at 303-492-4007 or caughey@colorado.edu.