Former FBI Agent to Speak at Jamestown School About Cyber-Bullying

While children have been bullying each other since time began, students now have some very powerful tools in their arsenal: cell phones, email, interactive multiplayer games and the internet with sites such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube. Bullying may have become less physically threatening, going from beating each other up on the playground to sending a revealing photo over email, but the response to bullying and the emotional impact it brings has become increasingly violent. School shootings and suicides across the country have been linked directly to bullying.

In order to prevent problems from developing due to cyber-bullying and protect the students at Jamestown School, the JHS PDC committee is hosting a series of seminars presented by former FBI agent Jeff Lanza. On the afternoon of Feb. 2, Lanza will educate the faculty on how to recognize signs shown by students who are bullies and students who are being bullied and what to do about it. Faculty members from several area schools, including California,

Latham and High Point, have been invited to participate in the seminar. Parents and any other interested parties are invited to attend the free seminar given Feb. 2 at 6:30 p.m. Lanza will educate the public on how to keep children safe from internet predators and cyber-bullies, as well as give tips on cell phone and Facebook safety, among other things. Feb. 3, Lanza will give presentations to both the elementary students and the high school students. Separating the students will enable him to give more age appropriate advice to the student body.

Jeff Lanza was an FBI Agent for over 20 years. During his tenure at the FBI, he investigated corruption, corporate fraud, money laundering, computer crime and organized crime. He served as head of internal security of the Kansas City FBI and as a regional spokesman. Lanza has participated in hundreds of television, radio and newspaper interviews including appearances on The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, Larry King Live, Hannity and Colmes, Fox and Friends, CNN Primetime with Wolf Blitzer and National Public Radio.

Lanza is a professional speaker who has provided over 750 presentations on the topics of crisis communication, ethics, identity theft, cyber-crime and more. His clients include Citigroup, The Young Presidents Organization, American Century, Hallmark, H & R Block, The Society of Human Resource Management, Edward Jones, Evergreen Financial, Oppenheimer, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo and others. His webinar on identity theft was provided to a nationwide audience of Citigroup employees in April 2009.

An FBI certified instructor, Lanza has trained numerous government agencies and corporate clients on how to handle the media tricks that the national television personalities such as Connie Chung and Chris Hansen used on him during his nearly two decades as a crisis communicator with the FBI. Lanza has been published in The Kansas City Star, Ingram's Magazine and on the FBI National Web site. He has written a blog for The Kansas City Star and contributes a regular column on leadership for Visionaries Magazine. He was chosen as the best speaker in the 45-year history of Kansas City's prestigious Plaza Club.

Prior to his career as an FBI agent, Lanza was employed by Xerox Corporation as a Computer Systems Analyst. He has an undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice from the University of New Haven (Connecticut) and a Master's Degree in Business Administration from the University of Texas.

The school hopes to have many of the community members come out to hear Lanza speak on Feb. 2 at 6:30 p.m., about the dangers the children of today face and how educators and parents alike can protect them.