DENVER -- For the first time, school and law enforcement representatives from all over Colorado gathered to talk about school safety on Thursday.

The 1999 Columbine High School tragedy and last September's shooting at a Bailey high school have prompted many other schools to prepare for the possibility of violence in their buildings.

On Thursday, 350 school principals, teachers, police officers and others met at Johnson & Wales University in Denver to compare notes on the important issue.

"Something that may be working very well in Meeker, somebody in Denver doesn't know about," said Dr. Vincent Wincelowicz, one of the symposium's organizers. "This gives everybody an opportunity to sort of network and talk about these issues."

Attendees heard from those connected with the Platte Canyon High School incident. They learned how they can improve their school crisis plans.

"Our building is very hard to exit because of the way it's shaped," said Jean Marie Dawe, a Lake County Middle School teacher. "And so the exit strategy should probably be changed, and possibly the communications strategy that we have set up."

Dawe said communities, no matter how small, can't be apathetic. She said no school is immune from the possibility of violence.

Findings from the symposium will be put on paper and made available to school and police officials around Colorado.