Sue Scheff: School Safety TV invites champions to reach out worldwide

Global television initiative to be launched at the International School Safety Convention, April 22-23, 2010, in Denver

School Safety TV, a new cause-related television channel, is inviting leaders, innovators and goodwill ambassadors to join a series of public appeals to be broadcast globally to support programs that help protect students, teachers, and schools everywhere.

The series of televised appeals and mini-documentaries will be launched at the International School Safety Convention, April 22-23, 2010, in Denver, Colorado. Television production and editing facilities will be provided free of charge to spokespersons and delegates from the United States and around the world.

Online registration for television participants is now open at http://www.schoolsafety.tv/  for a limited time.

Also invited are persons of integrity who are widely recognized in the worlds of art, entertainment, sports, science, and literature, and who are interested in drawing attention to programs of their choice and connecting with new audiences.

Throughout the 30 days following the International School Safety Convention, School Safety TV will distribute 4 hours of broadcast video packages to journalists, television news producers, and online and mobile news video providers at more than 25,000 news organizations on all continents.

Participating organizations may include electronic brochures, reports, presentations, and other multi-media with the high-definition video distributions.

To help build a world audience for each program, School Safety TV also offers online social networking tools so that organizations can quickly invite and engage supporters, moderate discussions in multiple languages, create action groups, schedule and promote events, register attendees, and upload media assets throughout the year for instant web distribution.


The Advisory Board for the convention’s television campaign is led by the Executive Director of Safe Havens International, Michael Dorn, a noted school safety expert who has provided leadership consulting to states across the country and to nations around the world.

“Our purpose is to bring together comparisons and contrasts so that administrators, leaders, and influencers can learn from one another,” Dorn said. Bullying, cyber threats, natural disasters, gangs, major accidents, and school violence are problems found in most parts of the world, according to Dorn. “Problems also vary from country-to-country, but the different solutions we try are relevant to everyone,” he explains.

Dorn and the convention organizers point to many examples of horrific school safety issues that deserve international attention:

• A girl in Afghanistan has acid thrown in her face because she wants to go to school, and her family must face a life of humiliation.
• A boy in Nepal recruited into armed conflict as a “child soldier” is haunted by his own atrocities when he re-enters civil society.
• An African boy from a war-torn city tries to adjust to high school life when his family seeks refuge in America.
• A child in Indonesia who loses her family and her school in a tsunami faces the threat of human trafficking.
• Teachers are gunned down in Iraq, and the country experiences a “brain drain” when academic leaders flee.
• A youth gang organizer in California turns to the school playgrounds of Latin America to recruit new members.
• A tranquil European community is hit by a school shooting rampage, and the survivors’ grief remains unresolved.

Reviewing these and many other school-related crises, Dorn said, “We need to build a large community of problem-solvers that is very inclusive.”

Other School Safety TV Advisory Board members include former U.S. “Cyber Czar” Andy Purdy, who will review programs that address school cyber threats; John Simmons, chairman of School Safety Partners; and Ross Ellis, founder and CEO of Love Our Children USA. The founding sponsor for the event is SchoolSAFE Communications, and the event host is the Foundation for the Prevention of School Violence, at Johnson & Wales University, College of Business. The International School Safety Convention is the Foundation’s 4th annual leadership event on school safety.

Visit http://www.schoolsafety.tv/  to register online to be considered as a spokesperson or Goodwill Ambassador.

Browse school safety listings at USAservice.org .

Source: http://www.schoolsafetypartners.org/Funding/schoolsafety_tv.html

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