Four Colorado Lawmakers Win 2022 Safe Student Protection Awards From Child Safety Network™

DENVER, March 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the Child Safety Network™ ("CSN") America's leading safety organization for children and youth for over 30 years publicly announced the winners of the 2022 Colorado Safe Student Protection Awards. The awards were presented last Thursday at the Colorado Association of School Boards Winter Legislative Conference.

Attendees representing school districts throughout Colorado listened as Cheri Wrench Executive Director of CASB said: "On behalf of the Colorado Association of School Boards, I wish to congratulate Senate Education Chair Rachel Zenzinger, House Education Chair, Barbara McLachlan, Senator Don Coram, Representative Marc Catlin and the Child Safety Network for collaborating with CASB members in an effort that can make our schools and our students safer and more secure".

According to Ward Leber, CSN's Chairman & Founder: "We refer to the winners of this year's honor as Colorado's own "Fantastic Four." That is exactly the way we view these four proven champions for children.  Considering this is an election year, voters are all taking a good look at which lawmakers are fighting for the "priorities" that align with their own. If you've got kids in school or at home, Don Coram, Rachel Zenzinger, Barbara McLachlin, Marc Catlin, and every lawmaker that votes with them on the Safe Student Protection Program are fighting for your kids' lives."

The two Republicans and two Democrats joined forces with dozens of the nation's top experts on school safety, security, school bus transportation safety and campus security. They spent the last three years collaborating with Colorado's school districts, student transportation leaders, first responders and parents to create the most comprehensive school safety legislation ever introduced to this, or any state in the U.S. CSN

Spokespeople added that "it is mission critical that every registered voter learn what is included in SB22-085 by Watching This Video. While this bill amounts to pennies of your tax dollars, its designed to be followed up with millions of dollars from corporate sponsors to extend and expand the life of the program; making this one of the most cost effective and important bills ever introduced.

Voted 2019 Transportation Director of the Year (Nationwide) Colorado's own Greg Jackson who manages 400 school buses for Jefferson County said: "I believe we have the best chance in any of our lifetimes to make a generational investment. This bill is our chance to make the largest step forward in the way we protect our students at school and on their way to and from school."

After having fought for the past three years to bring these benefits to her constituents, Prime Senate Co-Sponsor Senator Rachel Zenzinger, (Chair of Education in the Senate) said: "This bill is one of the best chances we've seen in decades to make a lasting impact on our state's student safety and security; because our children are priceless and irreplaceable, their protection is essential to the future of Colorado."

Listen to all testimony provided to the State of Colorado in favor of The Safe Student Protection Program

Backing up the Fantastic Four are 26 of the Nation's top school bus, school site, parenting and child safety experts who all donate their time to the Child Safety Network to benefit Colorado under SB22-085.

To protect Colorado's Students and provide Colorado's parents with the highest quality and most effective free parenting technology and resources, the following experts testified on February 15^th to the first Senate Committee assigned to consider passage of SB22-085: CSN's Founder Ward Leber. To oversee parent and school engagement is the 53^rd National PTA president and White House Communication team member under both President Bush and President Obama, Otha Thornton, Jr. To manage the school site and school bus security and first responder coordination aspect of the bill is former assistant Director of the United States Secret Service, Tony Chapa. To oversee training to prevent attacks against our school buses is former Manager for nation-wide surface transportation security at the Department of Homeland Security and TSA, William "Bill" Arrington. To manage the transparent use of funds provided by the state is Richard D. Perry, MBA the former property manager for the audit of U.S. Department Energy facilities throughout the United States to include Rocky flats Colorado. To oversee and implement the reduction of approximately 500,000 illegal School Bus Stop Arm "runners" is Detective Daniel Sperry who's decorated law enforcement career and training began in Colorado. Dan is a school resource officer who lost his 11-year-old daughter, Makayla, who died in his arms after a motorist failed to stop for her school bus.

To reduce Colorado's 360 (average) school bus accidents per year is Jeff Cassell, who personally manages the safety and security of 2 million students for over 22 years, and who developed CSN's endorsed training now being used in over 3,000 school districts with an average reduction in accidents and injuries of over 50%.

To assist with the technology being used as part of SB22-085 on school buses and consult on ending the school bus driver shortage is Greg Jackson, Director of Transportation for Jefferson County, Colorado, and the 2020 National School Bus Transportation Director of the Year. Also testifying in favor of SB22-085 is David Hartzell, Current President of the Colorado State Pupil Transportation Association and Director of Transposition at Colorado Springs who will provide oversight on helping end the school bus driver shortage and coordination with transportation professionals statewide. For the 100 safety and parenting training topics available free to all Coloradans as part of the bill, are 14 of the nation's top experts of parenting for all ages including Stephan Tako who have created the most effective award-winning anti-bullying programs in the U.S. To manage the grant process for the school districts that apply for funds from SB22-085 is CSN's own President Stephanie Duckworth; a Native American expert in grant writing, former professor at both Princeton and Rutgers and the woman who coordinated the exact same duties required by this law for over 600 school districts simultaneously.

To make certain the user experience is simple and helpful when using the Safe Student app, Frank Tyneski will lead design and development of the user interface and user experience leveraging his prior background having run global design for Motorola, Blackberry, Dell, as well as systems solution for police, fire, and military, and ran lead oversight for brands including Ingenuity, Baby Einstein, Bright Starts, Disney Baby, Sesame Street, Ford, and John Deere. To make certain that top celebrities work with Colorado on this program and ensure the entertainment quality of the app experience for Colorado's parents is music industry icon, Michael Lloyd. Lloyd, who has produced over 100 gold and platinum albums, has also assisted CSN with by connecting major celebrities who a proud to help CSN prevent child abuse, abduction, in jury, exploitation and juvenile sex traficking.

About CSN: Since 1989, CSN has worked diligently to reduce the likelihood of children becoming victims of abuse, abduction, injury, and exploitation (see www.csn.org). We are a 100% volunteer organization (see our leadership team: www.CSN.org/about) that has never received a dime of taxpayer funding while helping parents raise safer, healthier children. CSN's life-saving work includes CSN Safe Bus™ NATIONAL SCHOOL BUS SAFETY MONTH, Green Clean Schools that works to remove toxic chemicals from our schools, CSN Safe Ride to make school buses more secure and provide new technology for public safety, programs to work with Tribal Councils to reduce the Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. All the groundbreaking programs and campaigns developed by CSN over the decades are made possible by companies that care about kids. To become a corporate sponsor for our work or discuss a campaign that will help with the health, safety, and education of infants through 12^th graders, please contact us at [email protected] or call 800-906-6901 Ext 10. Nosotras Español.

Lawmakers that wish to introduce The Safe Student Protection Programs in their state may contact CSN's Chairman Directly at [email protected] Watching This Video

Special Thanks

National PTA, The Department of Homeland Security, The Transportation Security Administration, Colorado Department of Education, The PTO, Colorado State Pupil Transportation Association. Colorado Association of School Boards, School Transpiration News and every school district, educator, first responder and parent that helped us design this program for the safe future of all Coloradoans.

SOURCE Child Safety Network