Violence prevention training urged

SPOKANE, Wash., March 24 (UPI) -- The Washington-based Center for Personal Safety and Protection is urging university and corporate security officials to take action against violence.

As the anniversary of the Virginia Tech University shootings approaches, the Center for Personal Safety and Protection is calling on security officials in academe and in corporate environments to take preventative measures to safeguard against violence. Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people on April 16, 2007, the worst school shooting in U.S. history.

Center for Personal Safety and Protection officials say workplace violence costs employers $36 billion while affecting millions of Americans each year. The organization announced its training program, Shots Fired, is an effort to provide guidance for employees and students on handling an incident similar to what happened at Virginia Tech or more recently at Northern Illinois.

"Colleges and universities have spent a great deal of time and money since Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois in trying to make their campuses safer," Allen Bova, Cornell University director of risk management, said in a statement. "Showing the Shots Fired video to our employees is one of the best things we can do. Every employee that has viewed it says there should be mandatory viewing for every student, staff member and faculty member."