Fifth Annual School Safety Conference Opened to the Public

The Southern New Jersey Prosecutor Offices School Safety and Security Conference is back for its fifth year, but this time with a new wrinkle.

Instead of limiting attendance to teachers and law enforcement officials, this year's conference, which will be held Aug. 17 at the TD Bank Performing Arts Center at Washington Township High School, will be open to the public.

The focus this year will be the consequences of bullying, including online bullying–timely, given New Jersey's new anti-bullying statutes that go into effect in September.

“The goal of this conference is to safeguard our children by raising awareness regarding online activities that can change lives and sometimes have deadly consequences,” said Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean F. Dalton. “A collaborative approach involving law enforcement, educators, community leaders, parents and, most importantly, students, is needed to accomplish this.”

Conference speakers will include New Jersey Attorney General Paula Dow and John P. Halligan, who speaks around the United States about the 2003 suicide of his 13-year-old son Ryan, a silent victim of taunts and insults in school and online when the Halligan family lived in Vermont.

The tragedy led to a Vermont bullying prevention law in 2004. New Jersey's similar anti-bullying law, which was considered the nation’s toughest when enacted in January, requires schools to publicly report incidents and permits expulsion of offenders.

In addition, Sgt. Steve LaPorta of the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office will speak about the unforeseen consequences of “sexting,” a popular activity in which a teenager’s nude or semi-nude images are transmitted electronically.

Sgt. LaPorta has spent the past seven years investigating a variety of online crimes that target young people.

The conference, sponsored by the prosecutor’s offices of Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Salem, Cumberland, Salem and Cape May counties, runs from 8:30 a.m. to noon on Aug. 17, and is free of charge. A continental breakfast will be served and registration held from 8 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.