Sam is the Vice President of Safer Schools Together (SST) and delivers safe school related training throughout the organization. He manages the fast-paced Safer Schools Together Social Media Team and is the lead developer and trainer of the “Digital Threat Assessment” Training day that has been delivered across North America. Sam comes from a background in the study of criminal behavior and has a Bachelor of Arts in Criminology from Simon Fraser University. Working for the organization since 2011, Sam has been a driving force in the operations of Safer Schools Together. As a supplement to Threat Assessment files and Trauma Response work, Sam collects open source intelligence and social media data for high-profile school related files both in Canada and the United States. He is frequently being called by School Superintendents and Directors of Student Safety to consult on his knowledge of social media. He has presented to tens of thousands of students, parents, school staff, police officers and community partners throughout his career. His love for this field of work jumpstarted in 2006 when, while living overseas, he secured an internship with the International Law Enforcement Agency (ILEA) and received training from the FBI. Prior to his work with SST, Sam spent over five years working on the front line of the province’s largest school district in their Safe Schools Department responding to emergent safety and security issues around the entire district. He also worked as an outreach worker for youth at-risk of gang involvement with the federally funded Surrey WRAP program. Sam also spent a number of months in a field practice setting with the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit – Gang Task Force as they fulfilled their mandate of preventing, suppressing and intervening on criminal gang and organized crime activity. Sam maintains to this a day a Reliability RCMP security clearance. Along with a Sergeant of the Gang Unit, Sam co-authored a research article on Gang homicides in British Columbia from 2003-2013 that was published in the Journal of Gang Research.
SESSIONS
10:30 AM - 11:15 AM Thu, Nov 29, 2018 TBC
Social Media Threats: How publicly available social media can be assessed to ensure safety
The vast majority of recent school violence attacks have had precursors leaked online in the form of social media posts. Knowing where, how, and when to look for this critical information is the current challenge this field faces. There are simple and free online tools and techniques that all those responsible for ensuring the safety in your schools need.Learning Objectives and Participant Outcomes
Participants will walk out of the room with a further understanding of current social media and online issues facing our schools and law enforcementLearning Objectives
- A current and relevant overview of the main issues facing schools today in the form of social media and digital communication
- An understanding of where, how, and when to look for this critical information will be covered using free online tools and techniques
- Understand the role that social media plays in threat & risk assessments, mental health issues, the online disinhibition effect and school safety
Participant Outcomes
- Utilize free online tools and techniques to be able to gather safety-related information from public social media platforms
- Conduct a reverse image search on an image to determine the validity of the photo and whether it is a stock or unique image
- Identify the importance of connectedness within schools and fostering empathy within a networked generation of students