Year: 2021

Can School Violence be Prevented?

Suzanne Sibole School Safety Strategies

school violence prevention

As we watch the news and hear of school violence taking place across the country, many of us have wondered, “can school violence be prevented?”

I know this is a busy time of year for educators, and while I hate to add something to your workload, this is really important.

We may not be able to prevent every act of school violence, but being informed and having the right practices in place can go a long way toward preventing the unthinkable.

If your staff hasn’t had training in the warning signs of suicide and violence in over a year, it’s time to revisit that training. To make this easier for you, I’ve created free handouts on the warning signs of suicide and the warning signs of violence. Simply download them here.

If you would prefer a more in-depth training, check out the online video course Everyday School Safety. It contains an extensive section on the warning signs of violence and the importance of setting up a threat assessment team. If you are just starting the process of setting up your team, I can help by providing training and consultation to get you started. I’ve spent the past decade training schools across the country to develop and mobilize their teams.

It’s also critical to train your students to report any concerns they may have. They are much more tuned in to what their peers are saying than we may be…and they have reasons for holding back. These lesson plans address and validate the reasons students are reluctant to report, and provide ways for them to safely do so.

If you haven’t already read this CNN article on leakage and warning signs, please do so, and feel free to pass it on to your staff. It’s a good, comprehensive overview of what we’ve been saying in the threat assessment world for over 20 years, but much of it is still not common practice. I think we’ve all learned by now that we need to shift our focus to preventing school violence in addition to responding to it. This information should help.

NASP (National Association of School Psychologists) has just released new guidance on behavioral threat assessment and it’s well worth a few minutes of your time to read it. You’ll find it, along with other helpful documents, in the Related Resources column on the right.

Finally, if you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I am sitting here watching the news on school shooting after school shooting, and I have the knowledge, background and experience to help. All you need to do is contact me.

Have a restful and restorative winter break!

Suzanne

Time to Rethink Active Shooter Training?

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Best-practice guidance

Those of you who have followed me over the years know that I have always been a strong proponent of preventing school violence, rather than focusing solely on after-the-fact actions and active shooter training. I firmly believe that a great deal of violence can be prevented by knowing what to watch for and having a process in place for reporting and assessing concerning words and behaviors.

Of course, I also believe that we need to be prepared overall, for all possible crises and emergencies. This includes knowing how to respond to fires, intruders, chemical leaks and many other hazards.

So, yes, we should know how to respond to an active shooter. But, we may have to rethink some of our current practices.

Research is beginning to support something many of us have believed all along: simulations of active school attacks can be frightening and traumatic for children and staff members.

The latest guidance on armed assailant drills comes to us from NASP, the National Association of School Psychologists and NASRO, the National Association of School Resource Officers. According to their joint report, Best Practice Considerations for Armed Assailant Drills in Schools, “schools should not use simulation techniques with students, and exercises should be appropriate to the participants’ development level and physical abilities. If sensorial exercises are conducted with staff, they should consent and be informed of the tactics being used, mental health supports must be available on-site during the exercises and after the exercises, and adult participants must be informed of the use and purpose of props and simulation aids prior to the drill. Drills should never involve props that interject or simulate physical harm (e.g., paintballs or rubber bullets) or physical contact with participants.”

So, what does this mean for your school? Training exercises should follow a progression of steps, beginning with basic activities. Going forward, lockdown drills should still be a critical component of training. Frequent nonsenorial/nonsimulation planning and walking through potential crises should comprise a great deal of your preparedness efforts. Options-based drills can provide alternative strategies for both staff and students to implement during an emergency situation.

For more detailed guidance in planning and implementing your preparedness and drill protocols, click here for the report referenced above.

Averted Targeted School Violence Report Released Today

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The Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) released its 2021 report on Averted Targeted School Violence today.

I urge you to download and read this report now as it has strong implications for the return to in-person learning for many students.

The report summarizes the findings of a detailed study of 67 averted school attacks. A comparison of home life factors, behaviors and stressors of “plotters” of averted attacks with those who completed attacks, reveals many similarities and a few critical differences.

The primary difference that leapt out at me today is that the highest proportion of plotters planned their attacks for the month of April.

With the April return to school for many students, it’s imperative that we train our staff members on concerning behaviors, reporting procedures and intervention strategies so we can assist students experiencing increased stress during this time.

According to the Secret Service report, stressors experienced by the plotters were:

  • Family
  • Social
  • Academic
  • Criminal/judicial
  • Change in schools
  • General/personal
  • Physical health
  • Unknown

Home life factors experienced by the students who plotted attacks were:

  • Parents divorced/separated
  • Family financial difficulty
  • Parents or sibling arrested/incarcerated
  • Family substance abuse
  • Family discord, incl. domestic violence
  • Family mental health 
  • Abuse/neglect 
  • Non-parental custody/care

In many cases of averted attacks, others have witnessed objectively concerning behaviors – threats, bringing weapons to school, physical violence, suicidal statements.

Also detected in these students were a constellation of lower-level behaviors – changes in behavior, interest in violent topics, a concerning mental status.

I think we can all agree that students have experienced unprecedented stressors over the past year. It is likely that we can’t begin to comprehend the level of stress some of our students have been living with.

Now, more than ever, we need to be vigilant and spend time checking in with our students.

We need to provide resources and we need to report concerns to our student services staff and/or administration. We must have a process in place for identifying those in need of intervention and a method for following up and providing help. We need a trained multidisciplinary threat assessment team. We need to train our students to say something to an adult when they have concerns about their peers. And, we need to act on those concerns.

I have provided only the briefest of details from the Averted Targeted School Violence report in this article. Please download it and spend some time familiarizing yourself with it. Share it with all staff members in your school and make sure everyone knows what to watch for and what to do when they see it. Only then can we feel adequately prepared for our students’ reentry to in-person learning.

My job is to make sure you have the resources you need to make your school a safer place to learn. I want you to be able to make your school safer without spending a lot. I’ve made many resources available to you at no cost, and just a few tools at minimal cost. To see the school safety resources, click here.

For a quick, low-cost way to train your entire staff online, click here. This training includes an expanded section on the warning signs of violence.

If you’d like help determining how to train your staff, feel free to contact me here.

How to Conduct a Virtual Threat Assessment

Suzanne Sibole School Safety Strategies



Many schools are still operating remotely and need to have a plan for conducting threat assessments virtually when someone has concerns about a student’s behavior, words or threats.

  1. To begin, revisit your existing threat assessment team and members. These are the very same people you will want to have on your virtual threat assessment team. The work is nearly the same, with the exception that it must be done via a videoconferencing platform. If you don’t currently have a threat assessment team, click here for details on who needs to be a part of it.
  2. The next step is to pull your team together as soon as possible to review previously agreed-upon roles and practices, make sure someone on the team has access to assessment and tracking forms, and review any concerns that have come to your attention over the past several months.
  3. It’s critical that your teaching staff knows what to look for and how to report any concerns so they can be assessed and acted upon. Your threat assessment team can put together a plan for staff training or dissemination of guidelines to keep everyone in the loop.

Many of the stressors affecting students remain the same as those prior to the pandemic. But, virtual learning has brought unique issues to the forefront that should be explored with students:

  • Social isolation
  • Lesser or greater parental supervision
  • Loss of regular contact with coaches, clergy, school staff and other trusted adults
  • Increase in anxiety, depression, and hopelessness
  • Concerns about societal and political unrest that has been in the news over the past year
  • Increased exposure to family conflict or violence
  • Increase in cyberbullying due to time spent on the Internet and social media
  • Decreased engagement in school
  • Experiences of loss

When concerns about a student are brought to the team’s attention, the team will need to:

  • Meet to review the known facts
  • Complete a preliminary assessment, noting gaps in information
  • Assign responsibilities for gathering additional information
  • Meet again promptly to review new information
  • Determine level and type of risk for the student
  • Create an intervention plan
  • Implement the plan with the help of parents or others in the student’s life
  • Monitor student’s progress
  • Re-assess as needed

If you’re wondering what to consider as schools start to reopen, be sure to read this.

To learn more about the threat assessment process, click here to access Virginia’s model threat assessment program.

Stay safe!