Community Safety Through Safe Storage

The Center for Leadership Excellence presents a webinar with William L. Lassiter…

July 10 @ 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Free

About the Webinar:

Safe storage of firearms saves lives. During this webinar, you will learn statistics and stories about how guns are often taken from legal owners and why consistent and proper gun storage matters. 

Congregations and individuals can make a difference in safe storage and violence prevention. William Lassiter, from the NC Department of Public Safety, will share about opportunities to get involved in statewide juvenile violence prevention councils. He will close out his presentation by sharing about the Safer Schools initiative, a program focused on providing safe learning environments for North Carolina public schools.

The recording of this event is available on Vimeo.

About the Presenter:

William L. Lassiter, MPA, Mr. Lassiter plans and directs operations of the Juvenile Justice Division and serves as a member of the Department’s senior leadership team. As Deputy Secretary of Juvenile Justice, he oversees juvenile facility operations, juvenile court services, juvenile community programs, and juvenile intervention and treatment programs.

Mr. Lassiter received his master’s degree in public administration from North Carolina State University; and in January 1998, he began working as a researcher for the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in the Center for the Prevention of School Violence. In 1999, he became the project coordinator for North Carolina’s statewide school safety tip line and its accompanying educational campaign: Working against Violence Everywhere (WAVE). By 2001, Mr. Lassiter had been promoted to the Center’s School Safety Specialist. In this position, he coordinated a number of projects for the Center, including the “What We Want to be is Bully-Free” awareness campaign, North Carolina’s annual census of school resource officers, the North Carolina portion of the National Institute of Justice-sponsored national evaluation of school resource officers, North Carolina’s critical incident response kit project, North Carolina’s pre-service teacher conflict management project, and the Center’s character education effort. In 2005, Mr. Lassiter was called upon to lead the Center and help it realize its vision of “every student attending a school that is safe and secure, one that is free of fear and conducive to learning.”

In 2010, Mr. Lassiter was called upon to serve as the State Contracts Administrator for Juvenile Community Programs. In 2013, he was promoted to Director of Juvenile Community Programs, where he worked to develop a comprehensive service delivery model for youth in the state’s juvenile justice system. In 2015, Mr. Lassiter was appointed to the Governor’s Task Force on Mental Health and Substance Use, for which he co-chaired the Work Group on Children, Youth and Families.

Gov. Roy Cooper appointed Mr. Lassiter as chair of the N.C. Task Force for Safer Schools in October 2019. This task force serves as an advisory board to the Center for Safer Schools, and provides guidance and recommendations to the Governor, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the General Assembly to improve statewide policy to enhance statewide and local capacities to create safer schools.

Mr. Lassiter was honored to receive the prestigious National Service Award from the Hamilton Fish Institute on School and Community Violence, for his exemplary service to children, youth, and communities. Lassiter has co-authored Preventing Violence and Crime in America’s Schools: From Put-Downs to Lock-Downs, which takes an in-depth look at the causes and solutions of youth violence. He has been featured on a number of major news networks and national publications including: CNN, Fox News, the BBC,USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and many others.