A new national effort to understand how active shooter drills may affect the health and well-being of K-12 students and school staff begins this week with the first meeting of a committee operating under the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.
Justin Heinze, associate professor of health behavior and health education at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, holds a seat on the newly created, 14-member committee made up of experts in firearms, education, campus and public safety, medicine, mental health, law and terrorism—all working on a consensus study to understand how schools and public safety officials across the country conduct drills and which may be most effective and least harmful.
Heinze, co-director of U-M’s National Center for School Safety, is eager to provide schools and the public a deeper understanding of the effects of a now-normal part of going to school in America.
He leads two National Institute of Justice funded interventions on school safety and a Center for Disease Control-funded evaluation of threat identification systems such as anonymous reporting systems within school communities. He also is lead for the Public Health IDEAS for Preventing Firearm Injuries at the School of Public Health and the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention Research Core.
Learn more about the committee and view the full press release
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