School safety and gun violence were at the center of this year’s National Conference on Education at the San Diego Convention Center, this week.
The gathering of 3,600 superintendents and other school administrators from around the country was sponsored by The School Superintendents Association. The school leaders have been in town since Thursday to learn strategies and hear success stories from campuses in every state.
Among the products and services on display in the exhibit hall was a patented, life-saving type of laminate designed to to stop a shooter’s bullets before they can hurt children in their classrooms.
"Last year, I believe we armored about 3,800 buildings nationwide," said Steve Johnson, a former police SWAT officer and founder of Safe Haven Defense.
Bullet-proof laminate is just one of the school safety products featured at the annual conference. Safety was also the topic of Friday's keynote address, given by Michele Gay, who lost her 7-year-old daughter Josephine Grace in the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting.
“Today we have made great progress but we still have so much more to do," said Gay.
She and other Sandy Hook parents started the Safe and Sound Schools organization to advocate for the safety of every student, everywhere, in honor of her daughter.
“We want to keep the place that she loved available to all kids. Everyone deserves to be safe and sound including our teachers, our bus drivers, and our cafeteria staff. Everyone who lives in that (school) building every day," she said.
Of course, an education conference will also feature many learning products for attendees to review, from virtual basketball to supplemental virtual help for teachers.
The latter is being offered by a company called Paper, which provides online tutors after school and during class. The program is funded by school districts at no cost to families.
“We work with the districts to identify, 'What are the needs. Should we be focusing on literacy in middle school, or is it math in elementary?' (We find out) what areas they want to see improvements (for their students)," said Philip Cutler, CEO, of Paper Educational Support Company.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) was another priority of the conference, with several vendors offering school districts options for using the growing technology.
Dave Schuler, Executive Director of the School Superintendents Association said, "For years we’ve asked our kids to solve equations right now technology can solve the equations … we have to teach our kids how to write the right questions.”
