|
For more on the conference, please see the conference flyer HERE
Boone
in Crisis?
Matthew Robinson, PhD
Can you imagine terrorists launching coordinated attacks
against soft targets in a rural county like Watauga County?
Can you envision small towns like Boone after an outbreak of
the bird flu in the United
States?
Can you picture a major hurricane pummeling the coast of North Carolina and then
stalling over the High Country, dumping a foot of rain or more in the span of
just a few hours?
Can you conceive of life in Boone after a dirty bomb is detonated
in a nearby major city, like Charlotte?
Can you ponder a troubled child taking a gun to the Watauga County High School
and killing his or her teachers and classmates?
Although the likelihood that any of the above scenarios
would happen in Boone is extremely small – for example, the odds of being
murdered at school are about one in a million – the threats are real. And we must be prepared.
This is the motivation for a summer conference in Boone
being held on Thursday, June 22nd, and Friday, June 23rd,
2006 titled, “Communities in Crisis: Prevention, Response, and
Management.” The conference is aimed at
providing vital information about various kinds of community crises for law
enforcement officials, school administrators and teachers, town and county
managers, therapists and counselors, and everyday citizens. As suggested by the title of the conference,
the conference program includes presentations aimed at preventing various kinds
of community catastrophes, responding efficiently to those that cannot be
prevented, and successfully managing efforts to do both.
Topics to be addressed by conference speakers include
preventing terrorism through state and local efforts, endeavors by North
Carolina law enforcement agencies to implement Department of Homeland Security
programs and plans, policy issues related to natural disasters, counseling
victims of natural disasters, the role of substance abuse in crisis, preventing
school violence and campus crime, threat assessment, and other critical
incidents.
Speakers include experts from the fields of Criminology and
Criminal Justice, Human Development and Psychological Counseling, Public
Administration, and Forensic Chemistry. There
will also be an expert from new River Behavioral Healthcare and experts from
the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The keynote speaker for the conference is Mr. Chris Swecker,
Acting Executive Assistant
Director and former Assistant Director of the FBI's Criminal
Investigation Division, which coordinates, manages, and directs all criminal
investigative programs nationwide. Mr.
Swecker’s varied experiences include acting as the on-scene commander of the
FBI operations in Iraq, the
dismantlement of a Hizballah terror cell in Charlotte, and the investigation and capture
of Eric Robert Rudolph.
A table-top simulation exercise dealing with handling a
local emergency is also planned, in coordination with the North Carolina
Division of Emergency Management. The
topic will be related to a major hurricane hitting our area.
A registration fee, which includes a continental breakfast
and lunch for each day of the conference, is required for attendance. The conference will be held at the Broyhill
Inn and Conference
Center on the campus of
Appalachian State University. For more
information on the “Communities in Crisis” conference, contact Dr. Matt
Robinson of the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice at
Appalachian State University at 262-6560 or robinsnmb@appstate.edu.
For more on the conference, please see the conference flyer HERE
| 