Navajo Nation School Safety, Mental Health Wellness Summit planned in Shiprock

With concerns about school safety and the mental health of students continuing to escalate, educators, community leaders, first responders and parents of students will convene this week in Shiprock for a two-day event designed to improve collaboration on those issues on the Navajo Nation and issue recommendations for addressing them to elected officials.

The Navajo Nation School Safety and Mental Health Wellness Summit will take place beginning at 8 a.m. Thursday, June 29 and Friday, June 30 at the Phil L. Thomas Performing Arts Center in Shiprock. The summit is being organized by the Navajo Nation’s Department of Diné Education, the Central Consolidated School District, the Kayenta (Arizona) School District and the Navajo Nation Police Department.

Event organizers say one of the primary goals of the summit is to improve communication between all of those entities so they are not battling those issues on their own.

“We recognize that when it comes to school safety and the mental health wellness of our students and communities that we are stronger together,” said Suzette Haskie-Oberly, the vice president of the CCSD Board of Education and cochair of the Navajo Nation School Safety and Health Task Force. “Key outcomes of this effort are to create a shared communication platform amongst schools, health entities and first responders on and near the Navajo Nation because sharing information quickly is vital to safety. Additionally, we will come out of this summit with an initial action plan that will give our leaders recommendations on the resources needed to proactively address these devastating challenges.”

The task force to which Haskie-Oberly belongs began meeting in April and has convened almost on a weekly basis since then. It has helped shape the agenda for the summit, which will feature presentations by Ferlin Clark, education administrator for the Department of Diné Education and task force cochair; Steve Carlson, CCSD superintendent; Daryl Noon, chief of the Navajo Police Department; Navajo Nation Council Delegate Shaandiin Parrish; LaShawna Tso, deputy secretary of the New Mexico Department of Indian Affairs; and KatieAnn Juanico, assistant secretary of Indian education for the New Mexico Department of Education.

The summit will include panel discussions, safety training sessions and breakout sessions in which participants are expected to help come up with recommendations for immediate action, policy changes, financial support and collaboration. Those sessions will feature such topics as communication, law and order, essential skills and resources, mental health, post-threat response and recovery, infrastructure, budget and funding, training, and school safety resource center.

Among those scheduled to take part in the panel discussions during the event are Navajo Nation Vice President Richelle Montoya, Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley, Navajo Nation Chief Justice JoAnn B. Jayne and former New Mexico lawmaker Sharon Clahchischilliage, now of the New Mexico Public Education Department School Board.

CCSD communications director Jerrod Noble said June 27 that 70 people already had registered for the summit, and officials are hoping for the participation of between 100 and 200 people. Educators, health professionals, parents and community leaders from across the Navajo Nation and the communities it borders are invited to attend.

For registration information, call Noble at 505-368-4984, ext. 20131.

Mike Easterling can be reached at 505-564-4610 or measterling@daily-times.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e.

This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: Summit designed to improve regional collaboration on Navajo Nation