HILLSBORO, Ore. – The Washington County District Attorney’s Office is announcing the creation of a School Safety Task Force formed in partnership with the Washington County Child Abuse Multidisciplinary Team (MDT).

The School Safety Task Force will work toward ensuring that schoolchildren, staff, and faculty are safe when they attend or work in Washington County public and private schools. The task force will consider a wide range of potential threats to school children. This will include evaluating initiatives to prevent school shootings and violence, as well as addressing cyber and online threats, sexting and sexual assaults, bullying, youth suicides, and drug endangerment. This task force will look for ways to compliment existing local, statewide, and national efforts to address school safety issues and focus on specific issues impacting Washington County schools.

Washington County is home to over 100,000 school-age children. All children, staff, and faculty in our schools have a right to a safe educational environment and the Washington County DA’s Office and Child Abuse MDT is committed to working to ensure that safety.

The School Safety Task Force will utilize the existing resources of the Washington County MDT, which is a public-private collaboration of representatives from various organizations who work to ensure the safety of children. The MDT has a long history of engaging in a multidisciplinary approach to enhance child safety.

The Washington County MDT is chaired by Chief Deputy DA Kevin Barton and includes members from the District Attorney’s Office, local law enforcement agencies, school districts, mental health professionals, the Department of Human Services (DHS), CARES Northwest, the Washington County Juvenile Department, Washington County Community Corrections, and the Washington County Health and Human Services Department.

For inquiries contact District Attorney PIO Andrew Freeman at 503-846-3759 or Andrew_freeman@co.washington.or.us (preferred).