School Violence Threat Management

Description

The 21st Century has arrived with a new sense of urgency to keep our children and schools safe.

The Virginia Tech tragedy reminds us that these issues can occur in universities as they have in middle and high schools.

The recent deaths of students in Colorado and Pennsylvania at the hands of outside offenders highlights that students are not the only threat sources and the need exists to protect our schools from outsiders with unique and dangerous agendas.

The tragic deaths of hundreds of people, many of whom were children, in a school based terrorism incident in Russia further underscores this issue.

There are new dimensions of threat for school personnel, mental health, legal, and school police and security professionals to consider.

This 90 minute presentation will provide attendees with an overview of cutting edge information about school based threat assessment, violence prevention and intervention strategies.

It will assist in understanding the unique assessment, management, criminal, and civil legal issues associated with these cases and how to reduce one’s liability in the process.

The material presented will be based on over 17 years of topic-specific experience, pre/post conviction interviews and reviews of school violence perpetrators, victims, and incidents. Participants will gain practical ideas that may be applied to their own educational setting.

Topics include:

• Extent of the school violence problem
• Three types of potential offenders
• Warning signs and risk factors associated with school violence
• Improving early warning detection systems
• Applied threat assessment principles
• Interview strategies for potential offenders
• Systemic and multidisciplinary aspects of school-based threat management-integrating mental health, law enforcement, and school resources
• Perpetrator’s stories from videotaped interviews and other sources