Two employees from The College of William & Mary will serve on Gov. Bob McDonnell’s School Safety Task Force, the governor announced Wednesday.
William & Mary Police Chief Don Challis and Sandy Ward, director of the School of Education’s School Psychology program, will begin service on the 46-member task force when it meets Jan. 14 in Richmond. They join a line-up of fellow educators, law professionals, public safety experts, mental health practitioners, legislators, local leaders, parents and students.
McDonnell issued an executive order to establish the task force on Dec. 20, following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn. He also established a separate mental health workgroup chaired by Attorney General Ken Cucinelli and Secretary of Health and Human Resources Dr. Bill Hazel.
The task force will review school safety, including policies and procedures already in place, crisis and emergency management plans, threat assessment protocols, best practices and challenges. It’s expected to make initial recommendations to the governor by the end of this month, with a final report due no later than June 30.
Challis has served as Chief of Police for William & Mary for nine years, and previously served as president of the Virginia Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators in 2007. For most of his 24 years in college campus law enforcement, Challis said he has followed campus violence closely and will bring that perspective to the task force.
“In all cases of school violence, there is behavior by the shooter that provides evidence of a path towards violence,” he said Wednesday. “Our task, the communities’ task, is to identify these behaviors before they end in violence to self or others.” He called the task force a “necessary step” toward solving the problem of campus, school and community violence, which he said will not be solved with reflex actions.
Ward worked as a school psychologist in public schools in central Pennsylvania for two years before joining William & Mary’s faculty in 1989. She is a board member of the Virginia Academy of School Psychologists.
As a licensed school psychologist, she’ll bring an understanding of crisis prevention and intervention, as well as the mental health and educational needs of students, to the task force, she said. She hopes the task force will be able to identify the strengths and needs of current policies and procedures.
Both Challis and Ward said conversations about school safety have dominated their fields for years. “Schools were not built in the anticipation of such horrific violence as was experienced in Newtown, Conn.,” Ward said. “Although school safety and crisis prevention are not new topics, we now have to respond and adapt to the threats that we may now encounter.”
The task force will be co-chaired by Secretary of Public Safety Marla Decker, Secretary of Education Laura Fornash and Secretary of Health and Human Resources Bill Hazel. Its members are:
- Ken Cuccinelli, Attorney General of Virginia
- Joseph Yost, Virginia House of Delegates
- Margaret B. Ransone, Virginia House of Delegates
- Patrick Hope, Virginia House of Delegates
- Tom Garrett, Senate of Virginia
- Richard Stuart, Senate of Virginia
- George Barker, Senate of Virginia
- Patricia Wright, Superintendent of Public Instruction
- Donna Michaelis, Director of the Virginia Center for School Safety
- Colonel W. Steven Flaherty, Superintendant of the Virginia Department of State Police
- Garth Wheeler, Director of the Department of Criminal Justice Services
- Mark Gooch, Director of the Department of Juvenile Justice
- Michael Cline, State Coordinator of the Department of Emergency Management
- James W. Stewart, III, The Commissioner of the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services
- Maureen Dempsey, Acting State Health Commissioner
- Peter Blake, Director of the State Council on Higher Education
- Sarah Gross, PTA Legislative Liaison
- Michelle Wescott, Nurse, Rena B. Wright Primary School; PTA Health and Safety Chair
- Vincent Darby, Principal, G. H. Reid Elementary School, Richmond
- Keith Perrigan, Principal, Patrick Henry High School, Washington; President, Virginia Association of Secondary School Principals
- Dr. Deborah Pettit, Superintendent, Louisa County Schools
- Dianne Smith, Member of Chesterfield School Board; Retired Principal
- Leonard Steward, Lexington City School Board
- Regina Blackwell Brown, Educational Specialist for School Counseling, Henrico County Public Schools
- Meg Gruber, Teacher, Forest Park High School, Prince William; VEA President
- Judi M. Lynch, Principal, Saint Gertrude High School
- Sandy Ward, Director of the School Psychology program, College of William & Mary
- Dewey Cornell, Professor of Education, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia; Director, Virginia Youth Violence Project
- Charles J Klink, Assistant Vice Provost and Vice President for Student Affairs, Virginia Commonwealth University
- Sheriff Brian Hieatt, Tazewell County
- Sheriff Mike Chapman, Loudoun County
- Chief Jim Williams, Chief of Police, City of Staunton
- Chief Don Challis, Chief of Police, College of William and Mary
- Joel Branscom, Commonwealth’s Attorney, Botetourt County
- Chief Steve Cover, Fire Chief, City of Virginia Beach
- Edward “Bubby” Bish, Virginia Association of Volunteer Rescue Squads
- Captain Steve Carey, Stafford County Sheriff’s Department (former School Resource Officer)
- Gene Deisinger, Deputy Chief and Director of Threat Management, Virginia Tech
- Charles Werner, Charlottesville Fire Chief (Member of Secure Commonwealth Panel)
- Allen Hill, Father of Rachel Hill, Victim of Virginia Tech Shooting
- Alexa Rennie, Student, James River High School
- Jillian McGarrity, Student, Lynchburg College
