Schools are on edge due to increased school shootings and violent threats, according to K-12 Dive.
Here are keys to evaluate the credibility of potential at-risk student behavior, according to Guy Bliesner, a school safety and security analyst for the Idaho State Board of Education.
- First, schools should have in place a behavioral threat assessment team that investigates all concerns.
- For threat assessment teams to realize their full potential, put in place a system where teachers, students, parents, bus drivers — anyone — can make a report that is routed to the team for evaluation.
- Information should be looked at in aggregate with all other reports — the one from the cafeteria, from the bus driver, etc. — to build a holistic picture rather than using one-off observations to make decisions.
- To encourage reporting, classroom culture must shift from one where teachers feel judged for student misbehavior to one where reporting is expected.
- Fight an institutional inertia on the part of some teachers who believe that good teaching is handling misbehavior in a classroom.”
- The total school environment must embrace a reporting culture. This includes students who are sometimes pressured to not report out of fear for the punishment their peers might face,
- To avoid that fear, behavioral threat assessment systems should offer support rather than suspicion to students who have been reported. Behavioral threat assessment is not disciplinary. It was never designed as such.
- Assessments should identify students who may need specific support, such as mental health resources, and provide that resource while also keeping students and communities safe. Numerous school security experts support threat assessment teams, but several disability and civil rights groups oppose them, citing concerns that students with disabilities and students of color are disproportionately impacted.
K-12 Dive
