Question:

Hello Dru,

After the latest incident of a school shooting, I worry that we may overlook the signs that would help us identify a student who is liable to become violent. What do you suggest we do?

Worried Middle School Vice Principal

Answer:

Dear Worried,

I am so glad you brought this up. Proper monitoring of students’ behavior, (in the broadest sense of the word), their mental health status, and looking for bullying and victims at the school, in other words, a proactive stance, may prevent future horrible scenarios like the one in Cleveland and at Virginia Tech. Both those young men, in retrospect, gave clear indication of their disturbance.

There are many excellent resources to select from and use in staff development. The first step is identifying students experiencing stressful situations at school. Many students who make threats are being bullied. Information on bully-proofing your school is now readily available.

I might start a staff development session with this quiz from Schwablearning: http://www.schwablearning.org/quiz.asp?q=23

For younger students, a nice new web site is: http://stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/index.asp?area=main. Many of the students who later erupt into violence first experienced victimization in elementary school.

An extensive list of bullying prevention programs is available at http://www.sde.state.ok.us/publ/publ_pdf/Bullying.pdf ; one program that is used quite extensively is the Olweus program at: http://www.clemson.edu/olweus/. Most of these programs are aimed at students in grades K through 8.

Effective programs share the characteristics of being school wide, having rules against bullying known to all and consistently reinforced, and the development of a school climate that is warm, accepting of differences and has much adult involvement.

Not to be overlooked is the newest form on bullying – on-line bullying. See http://www.schwablearning.org/articles.aspx?r=1120. School personnel need to be aware of this venue and know the sites that students frequent. A school that has a good anti-bullying program in effect can influence the out of school environment by providing shared values that make victimization understood for what it is.

Also, create awareness of the vulnerability of students who are or are perceived to be gay, lesbian, or transgendered. G ay/ lesbian/ bisexual/ transgender (GBLT) teens have to deal with harassment, threats, and violence directed at them on a daily basis. They hear anti-gay slurs 26 times a day or once every 14 minutes. Even more troubling, a study found that thirty-one percent of gay youth had been threatened or injured at school in the last year alone. (http://www1.nmha.org/pbedu/backtoschool/bullyingGayYouth.cfm)

Bullied students, as well as other students at risk for committing violent acts, may have suicidal thinking. A helpful website offering many intervention ideas for suicide prevention is found at Guidance Channel Online . According to Diana Browning Wright, writing on Threat Assessment, once the student(s) is identified:

“Four key activities are necessary when a student has made a threat: Assess, Refer, Monitor and Support. When a student makes a threat to harm others, a team must respond by investigating whether this student's behavior poses a threat to himself/herself or others. Simply determining whether a threat was made, and then disciplining the student does not provide the scrutiny required. The FBI and the Secret Service have investigated school shootings. Best methods of conducting a threat assessment have been recommended, based on what we have learned from these investigations. A consensus approach has been recommended by the Secret Service and US Department of Education and is summarized in the Safe School Initiative. This recommended approach uses eleven questions.

It is essential that no one person conduct this inquiry alone. Rather, this is a team process under the leadership of the site leader, with various staff playing different roles in the process. Threat assessment is NOT risk assessment. Threat evaluates whether this is a substantive threat and what issues must be addressed. Often a threat is a " tip of the iceberg" on the variables affecting this student's behavior.

There are extensive website links and PowerPoint presentations on this topic, all in accord with the Safe School Initiative. A key website helpful to schools is Virginia Youth Violence Project. At this website, you can learn about a research-validated threat assessment protocol by Dr. Dewey Cornell and colleagues at the University of Virginia, published by Sopris West.” (From http://www.pent.ca.gov/threat.htm).

A list of references is included as. In particular, see

• Cornell, D. (2003) Student Threat Assessment.
  http://youthviolence.edschool.virginia.edu/pdf/PERI%20online%20conference%20paper%201-3-07.pdf

• Dwyer, K. Osher, D. Warger, C. (1998) Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide to Safe Schools. Washington, D.C., U.S. Department of Education. http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/osep/gtss.html

• Also available at the PENT website is a 50-60 minute powerpoint overview of threat assessment (http://www.pent.ca.gov/03Training/TrainingTOC/TOC_Threat.htm)

In summary, making schools safe has two distinct parts. First, institute school and district wide programs that teach acceptance and tolerance and reject victimization, and bullying. Second, once a threat of any sort is made, have a procedure in place, involving a team, to assess, refer, monitor, and support the student involved. Fortunately, there are now many good programs readily available; unfortunately, not nearly enough districts are using them.

Thanks for your question and good luck in getting these things in place.