The nightmare of Columbine High School continues to haunt the minds of parents throughout the nation, an expert in school violence said Wednesday.

"We are at an all-time high today in the levels of fear on the part of parents about their children going to school," said Del Elliott, a sociology professor who directs the University of Colorado at Boulder's Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence.

Elliott noted that a recent Gallup poll showed 47 percent of parents were afraid daily their children might be hurt while at school and 75 percent thought it was possible for a Columbine-like event to happen in their schools.

"The Columbine shooting was a marker that established for the people in this country for the first time the awareness that no school was safe and that the possibility of these kinds of violent events happening in the schools wasn't limited to the inner-city, high-poverty neighborhoods," Elliott said.

Elliott spoke to more than 60 people, including educators, legislators and law enforcement authorities, about the progress and future efforts of the Safe Communities-Safe Schools Initiative launched less than a year ago in reaction to Columbine.

The initiative was created with a $1 million grant from the Colorado Trust to respond to the Columbine tragedy in which a teacher and 12 students were killed. Scores of others were injured as well before the two assailants committed suicide.

Under the three-year initiative, schools throughout Colorado have access to information and limited direct assistance on how to develop their own safe-school plans free of drugs, violence, intimidation and fear.

Metal detectors, armed officers in the hallways, surveillance cameras, drug-sniffing dogs and random locker searches are not the solution, Elliott said, although he conceded they were needed in some instances.

Schools must put effective programs into place, including making efforts to find and eliminate potential problems before they occur and providing youngsters and teachers with a feeling of safety. Part of that involves a no-tolerance level for bullying, he said.

Also speaking was Michelle Stansbury, principal of Vivian Elementary School in Lakewood, and school social worker Gine Coleman. Theirs was one of the eight Colorado schools and eight school districts picked in March for more intensive in-depth training under the initiative.

"From being in education as long as I have, the handwriting is on the wall," Stansbury said. "We can't just count on mommy and daddy at home to back us up. We're going to have to teach people how to be cooperative and work as a unit in this process."