For Immediate Release • January 17, 2006
Terren Roloff, Director
Community Relations
Phone: 354-7338
terrenr@spokaneschools.org

Community safety forums to start

Spokane Public Schools is partnering with the Spokane Police Department and the Safe Schools, Healthy Students program to provide a new source of safety information for the community.

The first Community Safety Partnership forum will be Wednesday, Feb. 1, from 7-8:30 p.m. at Shadle Park High School. The event begins in the auditorium with a presentation on traffic safety, including discussion of pedestrian safety and hazardous and safe walking routes to and from area schools.

Interactive sessions and booths will be located in the auditorium and various classrooms, allowing participants to learn more about Internet safety, preventing identify theft, gang identification and drug/alcohol issues. Each session will be co-presented by police and school personnel.

“These are all problems that cross boundaries,” explained SPS Director of Safety and Risk Management Joe Madsen. “What starts at home, ends up at school; what starts at school ends up at home.”

Other activities include helmet fitting and child safety seat demonstrations, and the opportunity to have a picture taken on an SPD motorcycle or with Chachi, to name a few. The target audience for the forums is not just parents and grandparents of students, but also homeowners, business owners and neighbors – basically the community in general.

“These forums will not just be lectures and answering questions,” Madsen said. “They are police and school representatives working with individuals to create a safer community.”

Future forums will rotate among the district’s high schools and be held the first Wednesday of every month through the end of the school year.