On Friday, November 3, 2023, the ASIS International Hudson Valley Chapter, together with the Community Policing & School Safety Initiative, Putnam/Northern Westchester BOCES and the Westchester County Chiefs of Police Association, sponsored a Regional School Safety Symposium at the Westchester County Center in White Plains.  The symposium brought more than 150 first responders, security professionals and educators together to discuss several key issues affecting school safety and security.
Participants first heard from Amanda Nickerson, Ph.D., Director of the Alberti Center for Bullying Abuse Prevention at SUNY Buffalo.  Dr. Nickerson discussed the need to conduct structured lockdown drills in the K-12 environment and addressed the psychological impacts that can occur when lockdowns are conducted improperly.  Next, participants heard from Secret Holt.  Secret came to White Plains from western Kentucky to candidly talk about losing her teenage daughter, Bailey, during a school shooting at the Marshall County High School in 2018.  Secret discussed what school security measures were in place when her daughter was killed and how this tragedy has motivated her to become a life-long advocate for not only improving school security, but also an advocate for proper threat assessment training and reunification training.
After these two powerful presentations, the participants were led through an interactive table top exercise entitled “From Critical Incident to Reunification.”  The participants were given pieces of a scenario that began with a critical incident in a school and ended with conducting reunification of the affected students with their families.  The participants were guided by subject matter experts from various fields, including law enforcement, security and education.”
The ASIS Hudson Valley Chapter is proud to partner with such great organizations and to help sponsor such meaningful keynote speakers.  While many chapter members were in attendance, we hope to see even more in the near future.
Respectfully,
Craig Scatola, CPP
Chapter Chair