Facing tragedy...

School communities in Pennsylvania, Oregon. and Arkansas came face to face with violence last spring. One year later, parents, educators, and neighbors are still struggling to find ways of restoring safety in the schools.

Edinboro, Pennsylvania

In the past year, school administrators, teachers, parents, clergy, university, and Pennsylvania State Education Association representatives have formed a community coalition.

The coalition has funded anger management workshops and curriculum for school staff and created a new student conduct handbook. The group is creating a list of recommendations on dealing with school violence.

To tighten security at James W. Parker Middle School, where teacher John Gillette was killed, school staff now wear identification badges, and cars in the school parking lot sport windshield tags identifying them as staff cars. All school doors are locked during the day except a main entrance.

Jonesboro Arkansas

Wilma Maiers, UniServ director for the Arkansas Education Association, calls the district's response to the incident "relatively low-key."

"I think part of the reason is the feeling that there really wasn't anything that could have been done at the school to prevent the shooting in the first place," says Maiers.

But some small changes have been made, including the installation of a fence around the middle school campus. Some surrounding districts, Maiers says, hired local police to patrol their campuses. One district hired two new social workers and provided conflict resolution training for teachers.

Meanwhile, state lawmakers are debating several proposals that would make guns less accessible to kids.

Springfield, Oregon

The Springfield school district is considering providing school staff with information about students who have a violent history or criminal record. But the proposed change in policy has been tabled, pending concerns about student confidentiality.