BUTTE — Teachers and administrators from across Montana gathered in Butte to learn how to keep schools safe at the annual Jeremy Bullock Safe Schools Summit, where the message of the day was prevention.
Watch the full video below:
Keith Miller, the new superintendent for Butte School District No. 1, said the summit provides an opportunity to rededicate himself to creating a safe environment for students.
"Our schools are the center of our community, and we want to make sure that people are involved in our schools and get a chance to be a part of the prevention part of things instead of the reaction part of things," Miller said.
"It's part of any quality school— having a safe and comfortable learning environment," he added.
Three decades ago, 11-year-old Jeremy Bullock was shot and killed by another student at a Butte elementary school. His family honors his life by making Montana schools safe through their nonprofit that is named for Jeremy, and as new dangers like online bullying threaten students, prevention remains crucial.
"If you see something that doesn't look right on the online world, it probably isn't," through a video presentation, a school resource officer shares before receiving an award for his commitment to creating a school environment.
As educators, school resource officers, and school administrators gathered in the Butte High School gym before heading off to workshops, the keynote speaker stepped to the podium.
Mark Barden, the father of 7-year-old Daniel Barden, shared stories of his son rescuing animals and insects as he drove home the point that prevention could have saved his son's life. Daniel is one of the 20 children and 6 educators who were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.
Through a nonprofit formed with other families, Barden and his wife, Jackie, have been making their way across the United States, sounding the call to empower youth and communities to prevent gun violence.
"Gun violence is almost always preventable because there are almost always warning signs, and the warning signs give folks an opportunity to connect somebody to help before it becomes something more serious," Barden said.
Barden said the approach mirrors what his organization, Sandy Hook Promise, works toward every day.
"Mitigating crisis, not responding to it after it's already happened, but already putting these steps in motion so that you have an environment that hopefully offsets that from ever happening in the first place," Barden said.
He also emphasized the role students themselves play in prevention.
"Students being able to articulate what they are seeing and what they are feeling with their caregivers, and with their teachers, and for those trusted adults to be listening and taking that seriously," Barden said.
Robin Bullock, Jeremy's mother and a summit host, echoed that message.
"The more that we can create that culture of prevention and caring for each other, that's really what we want to try to bring people together to be able to talk about and learn from," Robin said.
In addition to hosting the summit, Robin and Bill Bullock announced good news for Butte High. Through their foundation, they have raised enough money to update the school.
"You know this is a very old building, incredible history, incredible place but it's not up to the standards of new design, new construction. So we're able to do something there to help that along," Bill said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
