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Regular Session, 2014 ENROLLED
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTI ON NO. 44
BY SENATORS DORSEY-COLOMB, CLAI TOR, ERDEY AND NEVERS
A CONCURRENT RESOLUTI ON
To direct the Department of Health and Hospitals to declare youth violence a public health
epidemic and the Department of Education to establish a statewide trauma-informed
education program.
WHEREAS, youth across Louisiana are committing acts of violence against one
another and throughout their communities; and
WHEREAS, a national survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) found that adults in the United States reported approximately one million five
hundred sixty thousand incidents of victimization by perpetrators estimated to be between
twelve and twenty years of age; and
WHEREAS, the CDC reports that many people survive violence and are left with
permanent physical and emotional scars, and that violence erodes communities by reducing
productivity, decreasing property values, and disrupting social services; and
WHEREAS, a national initiative lead by the CDC, Striving to Reduce Youth Violence
Everywhere (STRYVE), assists communities in applying a public health perspective to
preventing youth violence; and
WHEREAS, in 1985, then United States Surgeon General C. Everett Koop declared
violence to be a public health issue and called for the application of the science of public
health to address treatment and prevention of violence; and
WHEREAS, in 2000, then United States Surgeon General David Satcher declared
youth violence a public health epidemic; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Satcher released a report declaring youth violence a threat to public
health and calling for federal, state, local, and private entities to invest in research on youth
violence and for the use of the knowledge gained to inform intervention programs; and
WHEREAS, the report states that the public health approach to youth violence
involves identifying risk and protective factors, determining how they work, making the
public aware of these findings, and designing programs to prevent or stop the violence; and SCR NO. 44 ENROLLED
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WHEREAS, the 2000 public health report calls for national resolve to confront the
problem of youth violence systematically; to facilitate entry of youth into effective
intervention programs rather than incarceration; to improve public awareness of effective
interventions; to convene youth, families, researchers, and public and private organizations
for periodic youth violence summits; to develop new collaborative multidisciplinary
partnerships; and to hold periodic, highly visible national summits; and
WHEREAS, an individual's characteristics, experiences and environmental
conditions during childhood and adolescence are indicators of future violent behavior; and
WHEREAS, ages fifteen through eighteen, the ages that students spend in high
school, are the peak years of youth violence; and
WHEREAS, there is great concern over high school dropout rates, poor academic
performance, and violence in schools across this state; and
WHEREAS, the Yale University School of Medicine, Child Study Center, Comer
School Development Program (SDP) is an operating system comprised of three teams: the
school planning and management team, the student and staff support team, and the parent
team, which work together to create a comprehensive school plan, to design and conduct
staff development aligned with the goals of the comprehensive school plan, and to assess and
modify the plan as necessary using a wide range of student and school-level data to ensure
that the school is continuously improving.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
direct the Department of Health and Hospitals to declare youth violence a public health
epidemic and the Department of Education to establish a statewide trauma-informed
education program.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
secretary of the Department of Health and Hospitals and the superintendent of the
Department of Education.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES