Prevent 2 Protect is a groundbreaking program that helps assess and manage students who have been identified as high-risk through behavioral threat assessment.

Drawing on the expertise of mental health providers, law enforcement officials and educators, Prevent 2 Protect provides a research-to-practice hub.

Written By Alyse Folino Ley, MSUToday

The goal of preventive medicine is to find and treat problems before they become major health issues. Prevent 2 Protect — an MSU initiative that recently began supporting the community through schools in Ingham County and will soon expand to Wayne County — uses a similar approach with high-risk students to prevent acts of targeted violence.

When educators in participating regional schools identify concerning student behavior that could lead to violence, a behavioral threat assessment is completed by the school and then a referral is made to Prevent 2 Protect.

Read the full article here.

USA Software, Inc. is pleased to announce that Amarillo ISD, based in the Texas Panhandle city of Amarillo, has implemented our Behavorial Threat Assessment Digital Case Management System, a powerful CSTAG-based tool that will help manage the behavioral threat assessments they undertake.

School Districts across the country have created Behavioral Threat Assessment Teams in their schools in an effort to prevent targeted mass violence. In many states, like Texas, Florida, Ohio and more, it is mandated by law. School Districts like Amarillo ISD TX, Dublin City Schools OH, Lake County FL, Fort Smith Schools AR and others, are getting ahead of the curve by getting their BTA Teams trained and by implementing our powerful, CSTAG-based software tool to manage their case load! Their BTA data will be housed in a database where the BTA Teams can easily enter and access this data as well as perform analytics at the push of a button from a desktop or mobile device. This will allow them to focus on school safety, prevention, intervention, and threat mitigation. And focus on Education!

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Dewey Cornell, Ph.D.
CSTAG Developer

Threat assessment software is a valuable tool that can yield multiple benefits for schools.

First, a well-designed program can help assure high-quality practice. Threat assessment is a complex process, and good software with definitions and prompts at each step can help team members stay on track as they gather information and move through the decision tree.
Each member of the team can see what information is needed and what factors should be considered at each decision point.

Simple cases can be resolved quickly and, when a case is more serious, the team can readily divide up the necessary safety measures and further assessment steps. Pulling everything together in the case record makes it easy to identify targets for intervention and build a comprehensive management plan. Teamwork is enhanced because everyone has the same information readily available and tasks can be clearly assigned and monitored.

Second, after the threat assessment process is concluded, the clear and complete records generated by the program will make it easy to check on student well-being down the road and to share information when appropriate for follow-up services. Furthermore, these records will stand up to external scrutiny and help protect against liability claims. The Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines is the only threat assessment model tested in controlled studies.

Finally, your records database will allow you to evaluate trends across cases and demonstrate equity and fairness in student outcomes across demographic groups. Annual reports can show stakeholders the extent to which you have averted violence and helped troubled students.

Document your success with software that follows the Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines.

This past summer I was with the USA Software Team as a Behavioral Threat Assessment  vendor at the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals (ATAP) meeting in Anaheim, CA.  I had heard Sue Klebold speak at a Ted Talk so, when I saw she was a keynote speaker, I was ecstatic.

SUE KLEBOLD HAD COURAGE

This beautiful woman had the courage to present herself and her story about her son Dillon. Along with Eric Harris, he shot and killed 12 students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. Sue has subsequently tried to make sense of what happened. As a result, she has devoted her life to suicide prevention and mental health.

Her audience was 1,000 threat assessment and law enforcement professionals.  I felt privileged to listen to this woman because I knew the words would be raw and authentic. The message that stuck with me was this:

HER MESSAGE

“I should have listened more.” Looking back, Sue said she believes Dillon was being bullied at school. He and his friend Eric had been arrested for tampering with the lockers and this brought the two of them together as a team. He became depressed and suicidal. However, he was able to cover this to his own family while he planned with his friend.

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

I have to admit, listening to this mother speak about her son and what she has gone through, certainly gave me a different perspective. Moreover, it was very emotional.  She got a tearful standing ovation from me and the rest of the 999 people in the room.

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Behavioral Threat Assessment legislation has been making the rounds in most states.  Typically, there is language around the use of a “documentation instrument” to assist in tracking the assessments.  Let’s take a closer look as to how documentation actually works.

As a result of the school shootings, there have been a number of experts who have emerged in the industry. Some are educators, some are from law enforcement and, most notably, the U.S. Secret Service. 

Documentation

Documentation tools have been developed to track and collect important data whenever there was an threat/incident at a school. For example, was the subject male or female, location and date of incident, etc. In the past, the goal was to collect data, but that thought process has shifted recently. The importance of collecting meaningful data beyond the “what, when and where” has become the Behavioral Threat Assessment Model. These models help track/identify warning signs, unresolved grievances, bullying and so on, that can assist in mitigating the threat. They have been the backbone of the majority of behavioral threat assessment trainings that have taken place nationwide and been adopted by many school districts.

It’s clear that teachers and administrators are not case managers. In fact, the school system as a whole was never set up to case manage its students.  There are school counselors who assist with a variety of issues with teacher input, but there has been minimal documentation requirements overall.

This is all new!! 

I just filled out the forms from one of the more popular threat assessment “instruments”. Great questions but…the first segment, the Threat Form took me ½ hour to complete. That did not factor in other records review, like a prior incident, interviewing the subject, the target, and the witness, and creating a Behavior Intervention Plan.  I didn’t get to the mental health assessment.  That has to be done by another specialty. It includes a parent interview and then Behavioral Threat Assessment Team discussion and tracking of the student and their behavior.  And more documentation…

Oh, did I mention I had multiple phone calls and people leaning in my office doorway with documentation worthy details about other cases.  I am writing, writing, writing as fast as I can, hoping to remember what they said?!

The point is, assuming one gets it all down, at the end of the day, it typically goes in a nice manila folder, labeled with a new name sticker with the first few letters of the last name and Student ID number for privacy.  All neatly alphabetized in my locked file cabinet. Yet, who else knows of all my efforts??? So 1985.

The information is critical, but the communication of the information among BTA team members is the only hope of truly managing and mitigating a threat.

By now you must be using these forms and understand the time they take. Some schools are reporting up to 10 assessments per day!  Leaving spaces blank may not serve you in the event a threat is actually carried out. Like the form says, “you will want documentation to show that you made a defensible effort to assess the threat.”

A Better Way to Document. And share…

There is a better way to document, still use these important models, and share this data. If the above scenario is familiar to you, please give USA Software a call today and at least get a Demo. 1-800-872-1931.

Were you the one picked to get the 411 on available BTA software to bring back to your team? If you were, here are 7 highlights behavioral threat assessment software your team may want to know about:

1. Keeping this kind of information by hand, on paper, is so 1985 and dangerous!! Risk cannot be kept in a desk drawer…

2. You’re on the behavioral threat assessment team and a teacher. How are you supposed to know what the SRO (police) is doing?  This is the way to communicate effectively. 

3. This is a browser-based utility, so your team can access all information, any time day or night… from your phone, your laptop, whatever you got, cuz nothin’ ever happens at a convenient time.  You’ll be in the loop, no matter what.

4. We got Analytics! Like when the Superintendent calls and says, “BTW, I’m on my way to a board meeting, how many behavioral threat assessments have we done to date?” Yikes, but wait… you have the answer, pronto! With charts and graphs! 

5. Early Warnings: How about getting an email every Monday morning listing who has had 4 or more assessments over the past 180 days? Or which schools in your District have had 10 or more assessments in the last week?

6. Accountability: We track the team assignments. Who was supposed to call to make sure a student went to anger-management classes? Did they do it?  Was someone on vacation? Who will take the responsibility to follow up?

7. Complete Case Management: Dates, times, tasks, interventions, outcomes, pix, pdf docs…the whole thing. Right there at your fingertips.

There it is, just hit copy and print. Now, get to your meeting. lol

A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Targeted School Violence.

This indepth analysis is a must read.

Read article here.

More disturbing facts.

In a recent CNN article by Elizabeth Wolfe and Christina Walker reported 32 of 2019 school shooting were at facilities serving Kindergarten through 12th grade.

Read the Article