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Governor Unveils Strategic Plan For School Safety

A Guilford County classroom. KERI BROWN/WFDD

Governor Roy Cooper's office unveiled a new school safety plan at a summit held Monday in Greensboro.

The gathering was convened at UNC-Greensboro, where attendees were provided with a detailed overview of the new State Action Plan For School Safety. The five-year strategic plan was presented to state leaders in education, public safety, public health, and criminal justice.

Officials were told how the plan was developed over the past two years and learned about the guiding principles which were incorporated to provide direction.

According to a news release, those include a commitment to a fair and do-no-harm approach, the importance of preventing incidents before they occur, and adhering to available data and evidence-based practices. The plan also provides guidance on responding to and recovering from incidents of school violence.

Governor Cooper delivered a pre-recorded video message to the attendees, saying that “this partnership among state agencies, school districts and local law enforcement can help stop tragedies in our schools before they even happen.”

The implementation of the plan will be overseen by the N.C. Task Force on Safer Schools.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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