The following bio is that of an event speaker or guest author. This person is not directly affiliated with the John Locke Foundation.

Mr. Lassiter plans and directs operations of the Juvenile Justice Section, and serves as a member of the Department’s senior leadership team. As Deputy Commissioner of Juvenile Justice, he oversees juvenile facility operations, juvenile court services, juvenile community programs, and juvenile intervention and treatment programs.

Mr. Lassiter received his master’s degree in public administration from North Carolina State University; and in January 1998, he began working as a researcher for the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in the Center for the Prevention of School Violence. In 1999, he became the project coordinator for North Carolina’s statewide school safety tip line and its accompanying educational campaign: Working against Violence Everywhere (WAVE). By 2001, Mr. Lassiter had been promoted to the Center’s School Safety Specialist. In this position, he coordinated a number of projects for the Center, including the “What We Want to be is Bully-Free” awareness campaign, North Carolina’s annual census of school resource officers, the North Carolina portion of the National Institute of Justice-sponsored national evaluation of school resource officers, North Carolina’s critical incident response kit project, North Carolina’s pre-service teacher conflict management project, and the Center’s character education effort. In 2005, Mr. Lassiter was called upon to lead the Center and help it realize its vision of “every student attending a school that is safe and secure, one that is free of fear and conducive to learning.”

In 2010, Mr. Lassiter was called upon to serve as the State Contracts Administrator for Juvenile Community Programs. In 2013, he was promoted to Director of Juvenile Community Programs, where he worked to develop a comprehensive service delivery model for youth in the state’s juvenile justice system.

In 2015, Mr. Lassiter was appointed to the Governor’s Task Force on Mental Health and Substance Use, for which he co-chaired the Work Group on Children, Youth and Families.

Mr. Lassiter was honored to receive the prestigious National Service Award from the Hamilton Fish Institute on School and Community Violence, for his exemplary service to children, youth and communities. Lassiter has co-authored Preventing Violence and Crime in America’s Schools: From Put-Downs to Lock-Downs, which takes an in- depth look at the causes and solutions of youth violence. He has been featured on a number of major news networks and national publications including: CNN, Fox News, the BBC, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and many others.

Here is the full video from 1/13/2017