The Assessment of Violence Risk
The safety of children is always the top priority.
If a child feels unsafe, this concern will have an impact on school performance, behavior, the child's mood, and their relationship with those around them. We believe that as professionals, we have a duty to not only treat kids and teens in need but also to make efforts to ensure the safety of the community in which they live.
Risk Assessments are very serious.
When a student makes a threat to harm others, school staff and faculty, or the school itself, this must be taken seriously. Too often, threats are dismissed as "blowing off steam" when they may in fact be warning signs for more disturbing behavior. While tragedies such as the Columbine massacre and the Red Lake, Minnesota shootings thankfully remain rare events, they continue to occur. The only feasible way to prevent these types of events from happening is to identify those who may be at high risk for future violence.
These are not unpredictable events.
Incidents of school violence are rarely impulsive. There is typically planning and a pattern of thinking and behavior in advance of the attack. Both the FBI and Secret Service observed that in almost every case, the student communicated his or her intentions well in advance of the attack. These individuals made threats and engaged in threatening behavior that frightened others. Unfortunately, effective, systematic responses to such threats are not widely employed. Many potential school shootings have been prevented because threats were investigated and found to be credible. For these reasons, the FBI, the Secret Service, and the U.S. Department of Education all recommended that schools adopt a structured approach to assessing threats.(1)
1. O'Toole, M.E. (2000). The school shooter: A threat assessment perspective. Quantico, Virginia: National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, Federal Bureau of Investigation.
If a student has made a threat to harm others and a risk assessment is warranted, please contact us at (828) 268-4022
The safety of children is always the top priority.
If a child feels unsafe, this concern will have an impact on school performance, behavior, the child's mood, and their relationship with those around them. We believe that as professionals, we have a duty to not only treat kids and teens in need but also to make efforts to ensure the safety of the community in which they live.
Risk Assessments are very serious.
When a student makes a threat to harm others, school staff and faculty, or the school itself, this must be taken seriously. Too often, threats are dismissed as "blowing off steam" when they may in fact be warning signs for more disturbing behavior. While tragedies such as the Columbine massacre and the Red Lake, Minnesota shootings thankfully remain rare events, they continue to occur. The only feasible way to prevent these types of events from happening is to identify those who may be at high risk for future violence.
These are not unpredictable events.
Incidents of school violence are rarely impulsive. There is typically planning and a pattern of thinking and behavior in advance of the attack. Both the FBI and Secret Service observed that in almost every case, the student communicated his or her intentions well in advance of the attack. These individuals made threats and engaged in threatening behavior that frightened others. Unfortunately, effective, systematic responses to such threats are not widely employed. Many potential school shootings have been prevented because threats were investigated and found to be credible. For these reasons, the FBI, the Secret Service, and the U.S. Department of Education all recommended that schools adopt a structured approach to assessing threats.(1)
1. O'Toole, M.E. (2000). The school shooter: A threat assessment perspective. Quantico, Virginia: National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, Federal Bureau of Investigation.
If a student has made a threat to harm others and a risk assessment is warranted, please contact us at (828) 268-4022
| risk_assessment_collateral_questionnaire.pdf |