Creating Safe and Supportive Schools and Fostering Students' Mental Health

School safety and fostering a supporting learning environment have always been issues fundamental to educators. Over the last decade teachers and administrators have been called on more than ever to cope with bullying, suicide, and school violence in their schools. Handling every stage of this diverse set of obstacles can be unwieldy for teachers and administrators alike.Creating Safe Schools and Fostering Students’ Mental Health provides educators and future educators the tools they need to prevent, pre-empt, handle, and recover from these particular threats in their own schools. Framed with interviews from experts on each of the topics, and including practical and applicable examples, this volume draws together the work of leading school psychologists into a resource designed to work with existing school structures and curricula to immediately make schools safer.

In a concise format perfect for professionals and those preparing to enter the professional world, this book integrates leading research with the well-known NASP (National Association for School Psychologists) models for school safety in language appropriate for teachers, school mental health professionals, and school administrators.

Philip J. Lazarus, Ph.D. is currently the Immediate Past-President of the National Association of School Psychologists. He is also an Associate Professor and Director of the School Psychology Training Program at Florida International University. Dr. Lazarus has served as the director of the program for more than 30 years and his primary responsibility is to train school psychologists to work in the schools. Dr. Lazarus is the co-editor of the texts,Psychoeducational Evaluation of Children and Adolescents with Low-Incidence Handicapsand Best Practices in School Crisis Prevention and Intervention. He has written more than a dozen book chapters and over three-dozen scholarly articles. Dr. Lazarus has given more than 200 presentations and more than 20 keynote addresses both nationally and internationally.

Dr. Lazarus is a founder and Past- Chairperson of the National Emergency Assistance Team of the National Association of School Psychologists. This team has provided direct crisis assistance in the aftermath of the tragic school shootings. The NEAT Team also responds to natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods as well as acts of terrorism. He led the NASP crisis response in Mississippi and Louisiana where he provided crisis intervention training in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and he also led the team in their response to the Gulf Oil Spill.

Dr. Lazarus has also maintained a private practice for 25 years. He specializes in working with children, adolescents and families. Throughout his career he has received numerous awards (e.g., Willard Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award, NASP Presidential Award, FIU World's Ahead Professor) for exemplary service to the profession of school psychology.

Michael Sulkowski, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the School Psychology Program at the University of Arizona. To date, Dr. Sulkowski has published over 30 articles in peer reviewed journals in the fields of psychology and education and he also has published approximately 20 book chapters, newsletter articles, or other non-peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Sulkowski currently is researching novel interventions for children affected by violence, peer aggression, and youth who are at risk for engaging in retaliatory behavior from being victimized. Furthermore, he is interested in increasing the availability of mental health services in schools and in improving students’ emotional well-being through providing effective psychological interventions that foster safe and supportive learning environments. Dr. Sulkowski has received awards from the Melissa Institute for Violence Prevention, the National Association of School Psychologists, the American Academy of School Psychology, the Florida Association of School Psychologists, the University of Florida Alumni Association, the College of Education at the University of Florida, the American Society for the Advancement of Pharmacotherapy (APA Division 55), and the Society for General Psychology (APA Division 1) for his research and scholarship. Dr. Sulkowski currently teaches classes on law and ethics in psychology, behavior modification, and personality/social-emotional assessment at the University of Arizona.