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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

March 16, 2001

WEB RESOURCES PROMOTE SAFE ENVIRONMENTS FOR CHILDREN
01-60-JB

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- A variety of resources, many offered by
Lutherans, are available on the World Wide Web to promote peaceful,
safe schools, said the director for schools in the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
     "We will continue to be in solidarity with all of you in our
quest to provide a safe and peaceful environment for children and
students in [ELCA] schools [and] centers," said John J. Scibilia,
ELCA Division for Higher Education and Schools (DHES).  Scibilia's
comment was part of a March 5 message to ELCA schools and early
childhood education centers.
     There are 200 elementary and 30 secondary schools operated by
ELCA congregations throughout the United States and the
Caribbean. About 2,000 congregations operate early childhood
education centers.
     The March 5 message followed the highly publicized school
shooting at Santana High School, Santee, Calif.  Two students were
killed; a 15-year-old student at the school is accused in the
shootings.  The incident is the latest in a series of school
shootings, in which students used guns to kill or injure other
students.  At Columbine High School, Littleton, Colo., 14 students
and one teacher were killed in 1999.
     "Children are in pain and are killing one another," Scibilia
told the DHES board, which met March 9-11 in Kenosha, Wis.  Many
children were afraid to go to school in the days following the Santee
shooting, Scibilia said.  He urged board members to pray for the
victims and the alleged shooter.
     Despite the attention the Santee shootings generated, Scibilia
reminded the board that an average of 12 children die violently in
the United States every day.
     Online resources that may be used to help create and maintain
safe havens and safe schools include:
     + DHES Resources for Violence Prevention,
http://www.elca.org/dhes/schools/violenceres.html
     + ELCA's Decade for a Culture of Nonviolence,
http://www.elca.org/co/decade.html
     + Institute for Peace and Justice, http://www.ipj-ppj.org/
     + Lutheran Peace Fellowship,
http://members.tripod.com/~lutheran_peace/index.htm/
     + Peace Center, http://www.salsa.net/peace/
     + Peace Tools for Teachers,
http://www.salsa.net/peace/teach/teachers.html

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html