Threats In Schools

This document takes the findings from the Safe School Initiative study and sets forth a process for identifying, assessing, and managing students who may pose a threat of targeted violence in schools. This process - known as a threat assessment - was first pioneered by the U.S. Secret Service as a mechanism for investigating threats against the President of the United States and other protected officials. This approach was developed based upon findings from an earlier Secret Service study on assassinations and attacks of public officials and public figures.

This document provides a threat assessment methodology and intervention tool for identifying students at risk for carrying out acts of targeted school violence. This joint report compiled on behalf of the United States Secret Service and the United States Department of Justice is devoted to school violence threat assessment tools and methodology. The report was prepared as part of the Safe School Initiative. The findings of the Initiative indicate that targeted school violence incidents are unlikely to be impulsive, are likely to have observable pre-planning activities, and are likely to be known to other students prior to the event. The goal of the document was to provide an outline of a process for identifying, assessing, and managing students who may be at risk for perpetrating targeted acts of school violence. This report modifies the Initiative's prior threat assessment document and is designed to be used in conjunction with "The Final Report and Finding of the Safe School Initiative: Implications for the Prevention of School Attacks in the United States." Topics covered include: the importance of positive school climate in school violence prevention, a threat assessment program implementation guide, information about conducting a threat assessment, and threat management techniques. The threat management decision making tool developed by the Initiative is also provided.

"This book focuses on death threats made by students to their schoolmates and teachers and presents the standards used to analyze death-threat cases, synopses of 15 recent selected cases, commentary on the cases, and implications of the judges' decisions and data on violence in our schools. Along with a table of cases, a glossary, and a series of figures that encapsulate the standards as well as the 15 synopses, the book will provides some sample plans and policies that school officials and attorneys can modify for their use in their own schools."--Publisher's Website.

Manage potentially violent situations in your school with these expert techniques! In the wake of several highly publicized school shootings, the problem of school violence has increasingly become a focus of concern for the general public as well as teachers, school officials, and students. Drawing on case studies from publicized violent incidents as well as from Dr. McCann's private practice, Threats in Schools: A Practical Guide for Managing Violence provides techniques for identifying, conceptualizing, assessing, and managing threatening behavior by students in school settings. Offering specific case management strategies for a variety of situations, this indispensable volume provides guidance on formulating questions to ask and suggestions for developing strategies for managing potentially violent situations. Integrating threat assessment and risk management models, this approach will help you target potential threats to property, other students, teachers, and school staff. The interdisciplinary approach recognizes that violent behavior is dependent on the characteristics of the perpetrator, victim, and setting, and that the relationship between threats and violence is not always clear. Threats in Schools offers well-grounded research, detailed case studies, and theoretical approaches to help you deal with the tough issues, including: zero-tolerance policies and their more effective alternatives why profiling techniques to identify violence-prone students are of limited use interventions to defuse potentially violent situations critical incident stress management Five appendixes offer forms and checklists to help you plan and evaluate, including: threat assessment and management planning checklist of characteristics of perpetrators of school violence questions for evaluating general risk of violence fire-setting and bombing risk assessment sex offense risk assessment Lucidly written and illustrated with helpful tables and figures, Threats in Schools offers school officials, mental health professionals, community leaders, and the media the information they need to understand what sparks school violence and which approaches reduce the risk of it.

Since June 1999, the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Secret Service have been working as a team to try to better understand--and ultimately help prevent--school shootings in America. The authors believe the results of this effort have given schools and communities real cause for hope. Through the "Safe School Initiative," staff from the U.S. Department of Education's Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program and the U.S. Secret Service's National Threat Assessment Center have found that some school attacks may be preventable. In particular, the "Safe School Initiative" findings indicate that incidents of targeted violence in school were rarely impulsive; that the students who perpetrated these attacks usually planned out the attack in advance--with planning behavior that was oftentimes observable; and that, prior to most attacks, other children knew that the attack was to occur. This document takes these findings one step further by setting forth a process for identifying, assessing, and managing students who may pose a threat of targeted violence in schools. This process--known as threat assessment--was first pioneered by the U.S. Secret Service as a mechanism for investigating threats against the president of the United States and other protected officials. This "Guide" represents a modification of the Secret Service threat assessment process, based upon findings from the "Safe School Initiative." It is intended for use by school personnel, law enforcement officials, and others with protective responsibilities in the nation's schools. This "Guide" includes suggestions for developing a threat assessment team within a school or school district, steps to take when a threat or other information of concern comes to light, consideration about when to involve law enforcement personnel, issues of information sharing, and ideas for creating safe school climates. An appendix provides annotated resources. (Contains 21 footnotes.) [This guide is an update of the 2002 report, "Threat Assessment in Schools: A Guide to Managing Threatening Situations and to Creating Safe School Climates" (ED466013).].

Guidelines for Responding to Student Threats of Violence Book

This document provides a threat assessment methodology and intervention tool for identifying students at risk for carrying out acts of targeted school violence. This joint report compiled on behalf of the United States Secret Service and the United States Department of Justice is devoted to school violence threat assessment tools and methodology. The report was prepared as part of the Safe School Initiative. The findings of the Initiative indicate that targeted school violence incidents are unlikely to be impulsive, are likely to have observable pre-planning activities, and are likely to be known to other students prior to the event. The goal of the document was to provide an outline of a process for identifying, assessing, and managing students who may be at risk for perpetrating targeted acts of school violence. This report modifies the Initiative's prior threat assessment document and is designed to be used in conjunction with "The Final Report and Finding of the Safe School Initiative: Implications for the Prevention of School Attacks in the United States." Topics covered include: the importance of positive school climate in school violence prevention, a threat assessment program implementation guide, information about conducting a threat assessment, and threat management techniques. The threat management decision making tool developed by the Initiative is also provided.