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.
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).].
This publication focuses on the use of the threat assessment process pioneered by the Secret Service as one component of the Department of Education's efforts to help schools across the nation reduce school violence and create safe climates.
Incidents of bullying, harassment, and threats in schools are growing, but the line between students' rights to expression and the school's rights to protect children and faculty is increasingly blurred. To create effective disciplinary and management policies, educators need to understand the legal ramifications of their actions. Bullying and Harassment: A Legal Guide for Educators provides the practical information that they need to help students while avoiding litigation pitfalls. --from publisher description.
School security is one of the most pressing public concerns today. Yet in most schools, there is little security expertise or detailed knowledge about how to implement and manage a security program. The Handbook for School Safety and Security rectifies this problem by providing the salient information school administrators and security professionals need to address the most important security issues schools face. Made up of contributions from leading experts in school security, The Handbook for School Safety and Security provides a wealth of practical information for securing any K-12 school. It discusses key approaches and best practices for school crime prevention, including such topics as crisis management and mass notification. It also covers the physical measure needed for protecting a school, including detailed discussions of access control, lighting, alarms, and locks. While there is no single fix for the myriad of security challenges facing today's school security professionals, the best practices found in The Handbook for School Safety and Security will help increase the safety and security of any school. - Brings together the collective experience of industry-leading subject matter specialists into one resource. - Covers all the key areas needed for developing and implementing a school security program. - Includes a list of 100 things to know when developing a school security program.
The Oxford Handbook of Behavioral Emergencies and Crises includes the most up-to-date and valuable research on the evaluation and management of the most challenging patients or clients faced by mental health providers-individuals who are at high risk of suicide, of other-directed violence, or of becoming the victims of interpersonal violence. These are cases in which the outcome can be serious injury or death, and there can be negative consequences not only for the patient, but also for the patient's family and friends, for the assessing or treating clinician, and for the patient's clinic or medical center. Virtually all mental health clinicians with an active caseload will see individuals with such issues. This Handbook is comprised of chapters by leading clinicians, researchers, and scholars in this area of practice. It presents a framework for learning the skills needed for assessing and working competently with such high-risk individuals. Chapters draw a distinction between behavioral emergencies and crises, and between emergency intervention and crisis intervention. The book examines the inter-related aspects of the major behavioral emergencies; that is, for example, the degree to which interpersonal victimization may lead an individual on a pathway to later suicidal or violent behavior, or the degree to which suicidal individuals and violent individuals may share certain cognitive characteristics. This resource is not simply a knowledge base for behavioral emergencies; it also presents a method for reducing stress and acquiring skills in working with high-risk people.
In the last decade, school shootings have decimated communities and terrified parents, teachers, and children in even the most "family friendly" American towns and suburbs. These tragedies appear to be the spontaneous acts of troubled, disconnected teens, but this important book argues that the roots of violence are deeply entwined in the communities themselves. Rampage challenges the "loner theory" of school violence, and shows why so many adults and students miss the warning signs that could prevent it. Drawing on more than 200 interviews with town residents, distinguished sociologist Katherine Newman and her co-authors take the reader inside two of the most notorious school shootings of the 1990s, in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and Paducah, Kentucky. In a powerful and original analysis, she demonstrates that the organizational structure of schools "loses" information about troubled kids, and the very closeness of these small rural towns restrained neighbors and friends from communicating what they knew about their problems. Her conclusions shed light on the ties that bind in small-town America.
Manage a Hazard or Threat Effectively and Prevent It from Becoming a DisasterWhen disaster strikes, it can present challenges to those caught off guard, leaving them to cope with the fallout. Adopting a risk management approach to addressing threats, vulnerability, and risk assessments is critical to those on the frontline. Developed with first res
