Schools need to act swiftly to stay ahead of and prevent violent incidents. Implementing early behavioral threat assessments can empower them to achieve this goal.
Staff, school resource officers (SROs), and teachers Must learn to recognize the warning signs of a struggling student. This is a critical factor in school safety. By identifying these signs early and providing the necessary support, they can help prevent situations from escalating into intentional school violence. A profile has not been established for a shooter, often there are warning signs and these can be years in the making.
The critical part of threat assessment is first recognizing these warning signs. Second, the hurdle is to communicate these warning signs. The challenge for educators is time, when do they communicate these observations and how do they do it while respecting confidentiality? In addition, do educators know whey they are looking for in warning signs? Attackers will typically show several of the signs below. If school safety is dependent upon implementing these practices we must make the time.
School Safety: Warning Signs
Comments about an attack
A majority of these attackers have stated prior to an event that they have plans of an attack. This could be verbal, on social media or it writing/drawings.
Interest in Violence
Two-thirds of the plotters exhibited an interest in violence, such as expressing white supremacist views and watching videos of animal cruelty.
Interest in Weapons
They may speak about weapons, have an uncomfortable interest in weapons or draw about them.
Mental Health
Self harm and suicidal thoughts can be a warning sign along with depression.
Behavior
Acting out behavior, refusal to cooperate, displaying anger along with a decline in academic performance or interest are warning signs.
Violent attacks do not happen overnight, this develops over time. Violent actions follow a pathway for the perpetrator where it develops over time. A student can rapidly progress down a path of violence. Schools must be vigilant for warning signs and be prepared to act swiftly. While we are familiar with students and different behaviors, we may not be trained in identifying behavior that could lead to future violence.
Early identification is crucial for providing mental health support, addressing grievances before they escalate, assessing threats, and ensuring the safety of the entire school. Consistent monitoring and understanding who is on the pathway to violence are fundamental principles of behavioral threat assessment.
School Safety: Behavior Threat Assessment
Research demonstrates that most of these incidents can be prevented. Meaning, somewhere during the development of the violent act an intervention could take place. Eventually the warning sign includes sharing plans with others and this typically means an act of violence is growing closer. This article discusses how the FBI has been using behavior threat assessment for years to prevent violence.
Behavioral threat assessment is an evidence-based approach that helps schools identify students who may pose a threat, intervene with resources, and ultimately prevent future violent acts. The end result of an effective process is improved school safety. A valuable resource from the FBI, at this link is guidance regarding threat assessment.
The details of the process of threat assessment are described below:
Identify Students: This happens when warning signs exhibited by a student are observed by staff.
Observation/Investigation: Staff becomes more observant of student with concerning behavior, reports what they have witnessed. Social media may be considered. How are interactions with other students and staff with this student?
Determination: The team will have to determine if this student is a threat to themselves or others. This can be a difficult task, of course. The team will determine if resources need put in place for the student, mental health services needed? Do we need to continue to monitor the situation and meet again? A determination and/or plan must be established.
Implementation: Maintaining supervision of the student’s behavior as well as resources put into place is critical. This involves collaboration and could involve law enforcement, mental health services and any other resource that could help prevent a violent act.
Threat Assessment assists with the following:
Allows schools to identify students who could be violent and intervene.
Identifies signs that a student may be a threat.
Involves investigating an entire situation, not just a singular comment or behavior.
School Safety: Focus on Help
The focus on threat assessment is on helping and assisting a student and not disciplining a student. A focus on relationships lends itself to this approach. Teachers and school resources officers can play a role in supporting kids and establishing good relationships with them. SROs roles are discussed more in detail at this link. In order to improve the safety in our communities, we must assist these individuals with resources that will put them on a healthier path in the future.
The challenge that we see as educators is when do teachers or staff have time to work on this? It may be the most important collaboration with their duties as educators, but they have no time allotted to do it. We emphasize a streamlined approach to the process. The assessment team must have an easy, fast way of communicating with the entire team. Otherwise, all of the “puzzle pieces” are not connected and a complete picture of something concerning may be missed.
