EUGENE–Three years ago next Monday, Kip Kinkel shot and killed two fellow students at Springfield’s Thurston High School after also murdering his parents. Twenty-six other students were wounded in one of the most violent incidents ever to take place on U.S. school grounds.

Coincidentally, on the anniversary of that tragedy, violence prevention researchers from across the nation will convene in Eugene for the spring symposium of the Hamilton Fish Institute on School and Community Violence. The University of Oregon’s Institute on Violence and Destructive Behavior (IVDB) hosts the event, set for May 21—22 at the Valley River Inn, 1000 Valley River Way.

About 100 researchers and invited guests are expected. The public is welcome at free morning sessions from 8 a.m. to noon on Monday and 8:30 a.m. to noon on Tuesday if they pre-register online at <http://www.hamfish.org/> as seating space is limited.

The Thurston shooting and others around the country have captured the national media spotlight like few other events. While effective violence prevention strategies may not make for bold headlines and breaking news stories like violence itself, researchers want people to take note of their significant efforts to correct the root causes of violence.

The Hamilton Fish Institute was founded in 1997 at The George Washington University to research rigorously and to develop and evaluate violence prevention strategies for schools and their communities. The institute’s goal is to determine what works and what can be replicated to reduce violence in America’s schools and their communities.

"The Hamilton Fish Institute is the first multi-university consortium to study a variety of violence prevention strategies over multiple years, using a common measure of violence," says Jeff Sprague, co-director of the IVDB.

Comprising the institute are seven universities whose key staff have expertise in youth violence, criminology, law enforcement, substance abuse, juvenile justice, gangs, public health, education, behavior disorders and social skills development. The group, funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, includes The George Washington University, the University of Oregon, Florida State University, the Morehouse School of Medicine, Syracuse University, Eastern Kentucky University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The universities are wrapping up a four-year study of school violence prevention strategies, which include alternative education, school-wide interventions and work interventions. The spring symposium will feature each university’s work as well as a keynote presentation and information about Hamilton Fish projects.

In Lane County, the IVDB is coordinating a Hamilton Fish project at Springfield’s Hamlin Middle School. One of just a few such sites nationwide, the school is home to a classroom for students who have shown a high risk for behavior problems. Students are taught anger management, problem resolution and other social skills in addition to traditional academic curriculum.

The Springfield, Eugene and Bethel school districts also are participants in a federal "Safe Schools, Healthy Students" grant program that creates comprehensive local prevention and early intervention programs.

"The IVDB has emerged as a leader in the consortium and is hosting this national event to showcase the local intervention project and to highlight the continued importance of school and community safety research," says Sprague.

Beyond its participation in the Hamilton Fish Institute, the IVDB is widely recognized for its violence prevention work. Since its inception in 1995 as a research arm of the UO College of Education, the IVDB has gained national recognition for its documentation of effective early intervention strategies. Professors of education, psychology, sociology, law, philosophy, architecture and planning, public policy and management bring broad expertise to the institute’s research efforts.

Sprague and IVDB co-director Hill Walker have served as advisers to the U.S. Department of Education on the prevention of school violence. In 1998, following the Thurston shooting, President Bill Clinton asked Sprague and Walker to join a handful of other experts in the field in drafting a safety booklet now used in every school district in the country.

For more details about the conference or the Springfield Hamilton Fish project, call the IVDB at (541) 346-3592. For a complete agenda and registration information, visit <http://www.hamfish.org/>.

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