Officials present lessons on school safety

Staff report

COLUMBUS

Boardman school and township officials recently addressed Ohio school board members and school administrators about school safety at the 58th annual Ohio School Boards Association Capital Conference at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.

The panel of speakers included Superintendent Frank Lazzeri; John Landers, school board president; Tim Saxton, director of operations; Sgt. Chuck Hillman, school resource officer; township Trustee Larry Moliterno, Police Chief Jack Nichols, Fire Chief George Brown and FBI Agent Todd Werth.

The group presented lessons learned from the comprehensive disaster drill conducted by Boardman local and emergency responders, including police departments, ambulance services, the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Department and state and federal agencies.

The mock shooter/ intruder drill was written by a former CIA covert agent and was conducted at Boardman High School last April. After a summative video of the drill, speakers presented the details of the event as well as follow-up action taken since in order to better prepare schools and township services for potential disaster situations.

Key factors included the effective partnership established throughout the township and the priority placed communitywide on the safety of children.

A lively question-and- answer session after the presentation reinforced the value of disaster preparedness and the concerns of school board members across the state.

Panel members were some of more than 500 educational leaders and experts who spoke during the conference. More than 10,000 people attended this year’s conference, which featured more than 100 sessions of panel discussions, workshops, one-on-one assistance and nationally renowned speakers addressing a variety of educational issues.

Keynote presenters at the 2013 Capital Conference included Ohio native Wil Haygood, a prize-winning Washington Post staff writer whose article was the inspiration for the recently released feature film, “Lee Daniels’ The Butler”; Yong Zhao, an internationally known scholar, author and speaker whose work focuses on the implications of globalization and technology on education; and John Ratzenberger, Emmy-nominated actor, entrepreneur and philanthropist, who is best known for playing the character Cliff Clavin on the sitcom “Cheers.”