July 2020 Newsletter

Proceed with Caution: The Challenges and Realities of Implementing Student Threat Assessment Systems in Schools

By: Mark Concordia

School violence has increasingly come into the public eye due to deadly multiple shootings. The possibility of school shootings has become an issue for urban, rural, and suburban communities alike... schools have experienced multiple-victim homicides, many in communities where people previously believed "it couldn't happen here."
- Guide for Preventing and Responding to School Violence, p.1

The above statement appeared in a report produced by the International Association of Chiefs of Police to help guide America's educators in a time of uncertainty and fear. The guide is a detailed work completed by over 500 stakeholders from across relevant systems. The findings and recommendations of the report were compiled from the existing literature on school, violence, delinquency, and workplace violence. Before the report's release, it was peer-reviewed by experts in the relevant fields of study. The report's table of contents reads much like similar publications on school safety.

The remarkable fact is that the Guide for Preventing and Responding to School Violence was published over 20 years ago. The question must be asked, with the availability of authoritative guides on violence prevention from the International Association of Chiefs of Police, U. S. Department of Education, U.S. Secret Service, and the FBI, why are we seeing an increase in the frequency of active shooter attacks?

Between 2011 and 2014, mass shootings, a form of targeted violence in the U.S. involving the murder of four or more people, tripled in frequency. (1) During this period, a mass shooting occurred on average every 64 days, compared to every 200 days in the previous 29 years. (2) The FBI National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime studied active shooter attacks in the U.S. from 2000 to 2013. During that period, 39 attacks were in educational environments, the second-highest total number of attacks per location. (3) The need for violence prevention in our schools remains high, and the commitment by educators and law enforcement to school safety is stronger than ever. What is lacking is the ability to put in place the single most important recommended strategy to prevent targeted violence in our schools: a multidisciplinary behavioral threat assessment and management team.

A behavioral threat assessment and management team schools implement a structured process to identify, assess, intervene, and manage cases with a nexus to targeted violence. Targeted or intended violence differs from impromptu or spontaneous violence in that the act of violence is not the result of an impulsive act by the perpetrator. It is, instead, the final stop on a systematic process of rationalizing violence. (4) Behavioral threat assessment is the process of gathering information to understand the threat of violence by a person. Threat management is the process of developing and executing plans to mitigate the risk of violence posed by a person. Combining these two interrelated concepts presents the best hope to combat the rising frequency of targeted violence incidents in our schools and communities.

In 2019, the U.S. Secret Service released “Protecting America's Schools: A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Targeted School Violence.” The report’s executive summary states, "a multidisciplinary threat assessment team, in conjunction with the appropriate policies, tools, and training, is the best practice for preventing future tragedies." (5) While the strategy and message are clear, the challenge remains in creating policies, tools, and the availability of credible training opportunities. School districts vary in size, location, socioeconomics, resource availability, and cross-system cooperation. The diversity of school systems presents obstacles to the creation of a standardized student threat assessment system. To overcome the obstacles, some states have created model threat assessment and management policies and toolkits for use by districts. State-sponsored school safety websites allow school districts to download resources, guides, assessment tools, and even instructional videos on how to implement a threat assessment and management team.

In the aftermath of the Parkland, Florida, shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the U.S. departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, and Justice came together to create a central online location for information on school safety, including threat assessment. In February 2020, the Trump administration launched the website SchoolSafety.gov, a clearinghouse of best practice recommendations for increasing school safety. The internet has allowed for unrestricted access to information that, in theory, provides school districts with the necessary resources to implement both reactive and preventative methodologies. However, do the current federal and state responses equate to nothing more than a modern version of the 1999 International Association of Chiefs of Police report?

The essential element in motivating targeted violence prevention-based methodologies is the identification and availability of behavioral threat assessment and management of credible training programs and certified trainers. Without qualified trainers, the adoption of behavioral threat assessment and management teams in America's schools will be sporadic. Understandably, school superintendents are hesitant to implement such a complex system over fears of getting it wrong. Improper application of a threat assessment and management process can create a sense of false security, violate state and federal laws, or even disproportionately target and stigmatize students of color or those with disabilities.

A recent article published by Searchlight New Mexico, which identifies as a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization dedicated to investigative and public service journalism, questioned the use of threat assessments in New Mexico's schools. The 2019 article titled, “Who's the threat?,” identified that a disproportionate number of threat assessments by the Albuquerque School District were conducted on special education students.(6) The article noted, "special education, who made up just 18 percent of the total student population, were the subject of 469, or 56 percent, of all threat assessments in Albuquerque." (7)

The presence of disproportionality in Albuquerque's threat assessment process does not necessarily mean that its method is flawed. Likely, students with certain emotional disorders or other conditions that can contribute to impulsive or aggressive behaviors will present to a threat assessment team. The measure of a threat assessment team's efficacy comes from the proper assessment of the context surrounding the student's behavior, the motivation of the student to threaten or act in a concerning manner, and the outcome of the process. If a restorative caretaking philosophy guides the process, positive results can occur. The teams must be trained to a standard that balances the needs of the student with the safety needs of the school community.

Studies examining the Virginia Model of Student Threat Assessment created by Dewey Cornell found that schools using the model were four times more likely to provide counseling to students who were assessed than students in a control group.(8) More research on the use of behavioral threat assessment and management teams in schools is necessary to inform the discussion around standardized protocols that protect civil liberties while creating a safe learning environment. To that end, the recently established National Center for School Safety was established through federal grant money to provide comprehensive and accessible support to Students, Teachers, and Officers Preventing (STOP) School Violence grantees looking to implement violence prevention strategies in their schools.

In summary, schools and communities should consider implementing behavioral threat assessment and management teams to mitigate the risk of targeted violence in schools and support students in need. Existing threat assessment and management team models and established protocols serve as a foundation for superintendents to decide on the appropriateness and utility for use in their schools. Cookie-cutter approaches and canned training programs are not appropriate for such as complex issue. Relationships, trust, resources, and the availability of certified trainers will all impact the district’s decision to move forward with threat assessment and management teams.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the crisis of trust between the community and police stemming from the death of George Floyd provide a seminal moment for the whole community to come together to find common ground and solutions. COVID-19 has taught us to find new and innovated ways to stay connected with and support all students, staff, and parents. The death of George Floyd will force meaningful criminal justice reform focusing on restorative practices over punitive responses. The discussion will continue over the role of police in schools. Prevention can occur; however, no system is perfect, and we are facing unpresented times. Schools must be diligent and intentional in their approach to implementing student threat assessment systems.


Mark Concordia is a training manager for AT-RISK International and a certified threat manager through the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals (ATAP). Concordia has over 20 years of experience in law enforcement, with a 15-year plus specialty in targeted violence investigations. He is also a recognized counterterrorism expert, having spent 13 years of his law enforcement career with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force.

References

  1. Follman M, Follman M, Follman M et al. Rate of mass shootings has tripled since 2011, new research from Harvard shows. Mother Jones. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/mass-shootings-increasing-harvard-research/. Published 2020. Accessed February 2, 2020.
  2. Follman M, Follman M, Follman M et al. Rate of mass shootings has tripled since 2011, new research from Harvard shows. Mother Jones. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/mass-shootings-increasing-harvard-research/. Published 2020. Accessed February 2, 2020
  3. Blair, J. Pete, and Schweit, Katherine W. (2014). A Study of Active Shooter Incidents, 2000 - 2013. Texas State University and Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington D.C., 2014.
  4. Calhoun F, Weston S. Contemporary Threat Management. San Diego, Calif.: Specialized Training Services; 2003.
  5. National Threat Assessment Center. (2019). Protecting America's Schools: A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Targeted School Violence. U.S. Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security
  6. Swetlitz, I. (2019, October 15). Who's the threat? | Albuquerque | Searchlight New Mexico. Retrieved March 19, 2020, from Searchlight NM website: https://www.searchlightnm.org/whos-the-threat
  7. Swetlitz, I. (2019, October 15). Who's the threat? | Albuquerque | Searchlight New Mexico. Retrieved March 19, 2020, from Searchlight NM website:https://www.searchlightnm.org/whos-the-threat
  8. Sawchuk, S. (2019). What are threat assessments and how do schools use them? Education Week, 39(3), 7. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.roberts.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.roberts.edu/docview/2289876495?accountid=13562
  9. Babin, B. (2019, March 25). Text - H.R.838 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Threat Assessment, Prevention, and Safety Act of 2019. Retrieved March 19, 2020, from www.congress.gov website: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/838/text
  10. Babin, B. (2019, March 25). Text - H.R.838 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Threat Assessment, Prevention, and Safety Act of 2019. Retrieved March 19, 2020, from www.congress.gov website: 
    https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/838/text
  11. Association of Threat Assessment Professionals. (n.d.). Retrieved March 19, 2020, from www.atapworldwide.org website: https://www.atapworldwide.org/

boy sitting on a school desk slouching