Threat assessment

Safe schools are those that have developed a comprehensive strategy for identifying problems, analyzing the cause, and implementing a plan to address them. The analysis of potential threats needs to include the following considerations:

Areas on campus that may be unsupervised or provide opportunities for student on student harassment or violence
Routes to school that may pose a risk to students who must walk or wait for public transportation
Access points that could allow intruders to enter the campus without being screened by school personnel
Facility threats such as exposed lighting fixtures that could be broken during sports activities, underground pipelines that could be damaged during renovations, or damaged electrical wiring (refer to the section on Disaster preparedness/crisis response for detail on how to deal with crises).
Threats to student health (drug or sexual abuse, depression, or suicidal thoughts)

Schools that are successful in preventing safety problems are those that carefully monitor situations in the school building, on school grounds, or on routes to school that present actual or potential problems. Direct observation, surveys, overheard conversations, and formal data can provide an effective school and community profile of gang behavior, student harassment, drug trafficking, emotional crises, and other threats. Effective schools often gather and analyze the information in cooperation with parent/guardians, other students, and local law-enforcement agencies.

High-profile school shooting incidents always raise the question about how schools should assess which students may pose a threat. A threat assessment approach developed by the Center for Mental Health in Schools (Outside Source) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), guides the inquiry to determine whether the evidence suggests movement toward violent action. The questions focus on:

Motivation for the behavior that brought the person being evaluated to official attention
Communication about ideas and intentions
Unusual interest in targeted violence
Evidence of attack-related behaviors and planning
Mental condition
Level of cognitive sophistication or organization to formulate and execute an attack plan
Recent losses (including losses of status)
Consistency between communications and behaviors
Concern by others about the individual's potential for harm
Factors in the individual's life and/or environment or situation that might increase or decrease the likelihood of attack

The information gathered from interviews with the student, family members, friends, teachers, classmates, and from school and mental health records helps staff members to determine if the student is moving toward violent action and to develop a risk management plan. For example, what steps will minimize factors that could put the student at greater risk for violence? Strategies might include referral to appropriate services or monitoring the student for changes that could increase the student's risk as either a perpetrator or victim.1

The American Academy of Pediatrics (Outside Source) also offers a collection of resources to help parents, teachers, students, schools, and pediatricians cope with the aftermath of school violence. Its Web site provides additional resources on violence prevention, school safety, and mental health.

Another aspect of threat assessment is to determine threats to student health. Counselors and community health practitioners can provide training to help school staff members recognize the signs of health risks faced by young adolescents and help teachers and others know what to do when they identify any of the following signs:

Depression
Eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia
Cutting or other forms of self-mutilation that signal depression
Glue sniffing
Self-strangulation
Drug use
Sexual victimization

These and other types of at-risk behaviors become more common in the middle grades, making it imperative that staff members know how to recognize and react to signs of risk. (These types of threats to students’ mental and physical health are covered in the later sections on Counseling and Alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use awareness and prevention.)

Counselors can help teachers develop “openers” for conversation about possible health or behavior concerns among young teens. For example, many middle grades teachers require their students to keep a journal and to write one page a day. Not only does it help students to organize their thoughts and become more fluent writers, it provides insight to the teachers about students’ concerns, hopes, and dreams.

Teachers can begin the process and build a sense of trust by giving students a daily prompt to get them started. For example:

Sometimes I wonder about . . .
My favorite foods are . . .
My favorite teacher is . . . because . . .
I’ve noticed that I am growing up and changing because . . .
I’ve developed a career interest in . . .
When I graduate from high school, I . . .
My most embarrassing moment this year has been . . .
I wish I had a fairy godmother who could help me with . . .
It makes me sad when . . .
Things that make me laugh out loud are . . .It scares me when my friends . . .
My circle of friends are known as the . . . I like to be part of their group because...
If I had three wishes, they would be . . .
I wish I could convince my mother/father/parents that I’m old enough to . . .
If I had $1,000 I would . . .

To establish safety, teachers generally allow volunteers to read their entries aloud but do not require it. Teachers also avoid commenting on sensitive subjects. For example, if a teachable moment arises about a health concern raised by a student’s journal, the teacher can ask questions in a nonjudgmental way.

Teachers generally tell students that they will read the journals periodically and that the content does not affect their grade. If warning signs appear in the journal, the teacher can first talk to counselor to get ideas about how to talk privately with the student and whether or not to refer him or her for intervention and counseling. Through this process, teachers often identify students who need referral for eating disorders, suicidal thoughts, and delusional or violent preoccupations. In some cases, a caring conversation will be enough to help the student pass safely through a time of crisis. At other times, the issue requires contacting Child Protective Services or having a conversation with the parent.

Getting to know young adolescent students well should be a deliberate proactive process. Safe schools develop a system for sharing information on potential threats with students, their parents, and the community and work to eliminate circumstances likely to result in violent crimes. Actions may range from changing the school environment (for example, improving lighting or using concealed cameras in areas where bullying is likely to occur) to using hall and grounds monitors, obtaining assistance from law-enforcement agencies, and having offenders prosecuted. Parents and the community share responsibility with the school in guaranteeing the safety of all students at all times before, during, and after school.2

Taking Center Stage – Act II (TCSII)

A Portal for Middle Grades Educators

Threat assessment

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