School safety, security, and violence prevention resource

I admit it.  I profile a lot of things in these and other posts.  Survivors, Victims, Sexual Predators.  It’s easy to do and it makes sense, more often than not.  But, when it comes to serious school violence – catastrophic in scope – profiling rarely works.  What does work takes work.  Hard work in the form of observation, thoughtful analysis and assessment.  I

 

ACCORDING TO the National Threat Assessment Center, United States Secret Service, school and law enforcement officials are frequently placed in the difficult position of having to assess specific people (eg., students, staff, teachers and others) who may be likely to engage in targeted violence—  The following suggestions for threat assessment—are based on guidelines by the Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC)—developed primarily for preventing the assassination of public officials, so they may not be applicable to all school situations.

 

The NTAC suggests that schools should focus on individuals’ thinking and behavior as indicators of “their progress on a pathway to violent actions.”  It suggests that we should avoid profiling or basing our assumptions on socio-psychological characteristics.  Many perpetrators of (school) violence provide evidence that they are thinking, planning an attack, and many even leave evidence of logistical planning. 

 

There are many cogent indicators that the NTAC noted in their 2000 report, but, for the sake of time and space, I’m going to delve into the 10 Key Threat Assessment Questions that Must be Asked and Answered Once a Threat has been Identified:

 

1. What motivated the person to make the statement or take the action that has come under scrutiny?
2. What has the person communicated to others concerning his intent?
3. Has he/she shown an interest in targeted violence, (former) perpetrators of targeted violence, weapons, extremist groups, or murder?
4. Has he/she engaged in attack-related conduct, including any menacing, harassing, and/or stalking-type behavior?
5. Does he/she have a history of mental illness involving command hallucinations, feelings of persecution, etc.?
6. How organized is he/she?  Is he/she capable of carrying this out?
7. Has he or she suffered a recent loss and/or loss of status, and has this led to feelings of despair?
8. Corroboration:  What is the person saying, and is it consistent with his/her actions?
9. Is there concern among those that know the person that he/she might take some sort of action based on inappropriate ideation?
10. What factors in his or her life and/or environment might increase/decrease the likelihood of this person attempting to attack a target?

 

Until Next Time, Stay Safe.

Hammer

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