Document Actions
Threat Assessment in Schools: A Guide to Managing Threatening Situations and to Creating Safe School Climates
Date: May 2002
Author: Robert A. Fein, Ph.D., Bryan Vossekuil, William S. Pollack, Ph.D., Randy Borum, Psy.D., William Modzeleski, and Marisa Reddy, Ph.D.
Institution: U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Department of Education
Bibliographic Entry: Fein, Ph.D., Robert A., Bryan Vossekuil, William S. Pollack, Ph.D., Randy Borum, Psy.D., William Modzeleski, and Marisa Reddy, Ph.D. Threat Assessment in Schools: A Guide to Managing Threatening Situations and to Creating Safe School Climates. U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Department of Education, 2002.
Electronic Link: https://www.hsdl.org/homesec/docs/dhs/nps03-080604-05.pdf&code=3a1473ab03962bf24b71
df0f2991e347
Key Words: threat assessment, school safety
Summary of Key Points, Issues, Conclusions:
This report is in response to findings from the Safe School Initiative, and offers a process for identifying, assessing, and managing students who may pose a threat of targeted violence in schools, known as threat assessment. Threat assessment is centered upon analysis of facts and evidence of behavior in a given situation.
Key to school violence-reduction is creating cultures and climates of safety, respect, and emotional support within educational institutions. Officials may consider focusing their efforts in two principal areas to form strategies for preventing attacks. These are developing the capacity to assess and evaluate available or knowable information that may indicate a risk of targeted school attack, and employing results of the risk evaluations or threat assessments in developing strategies to prevent potential school attacks from occurring.
In a situation that becomes the focus of a threat assessment inquiry or investigation, authorities gather information, evaluate facts, and make a determination as to whether a student poses a threat. If an inquiry indicates a risk, authorities collaborate to develop and implement a plan to manage or reduce a posed threat. Threat assessment inquiries and threat assessment investigations are addressed as two parts of a continuum. Evaluation of a threatening situation proceeds from a threat assessment inquiry, carried out by the school threat assessment team, to a threat assessment investigation, carried out by a law enforcement agency after the initial inquiry determines a valid threat. A school threat assessment inquiry should seek information in five areas:
• Facts that draw attention to the student, situation, and targets
• Information about the student
• Information about “attack-related” behaviors
• Motives
• Target selection
A threat assessment investigation’s collection and analysis of information will be broader than an inquiry’s, reaching outside the school and across systems in the community.
In creating policies, school administrators should be aware of and consult with the school’s legal counsel about legal issues related to the conduct of a threat assessment inquiry or investigation. These issues include access to and sharing of information and searches of a student’s person or property.
An individual management plan should be developed for a student identified in a threat assessment inquiry or investigation. Successful management requires substantial time and effort, and comprises three related functions:
• Controlling/containing the situation or student to possibly prevent the attack
• Protecting and aiding possible targets
• Providing support and guidance to help the student with his/her problems
The report provides major components and tasks for creating a safe, connected school climate and courses of action to be pursued in a threat assessment approach. No two cases involving potential for targeted school violence are likely to be similar in all aspects. Rather than basing judgments of risk on student traits or specific threatening statements, the threat assessment process focuses on evaluating student behaviors and communications and whether those suggest the intent to carry out an attack.
Name of Researcher: Alison Stevens
Institution: Integrative Center for Homeland Security, Texas A&M University
Date Posted: May 10, 2007