Purpose of Threat Assessments
Purpose of Threat Assessments
The 86th Legislature required the board of trustees to establish a Safe and Supportive School Team to serve at each campus of the district and they shall also adopt policies and procedures for the teams. Behavioral threat assessment provides a proactive, evidence-based approach for identifying individuals who may be on a pathway to violence and for providing interventions before a violent incident occurs. Threat assessments are not profiling, adversarial, and not the same as a disciplinary process. The Team assesses and reports individuals who make threats of violence or exhibit harmful, threatening, or violent behavior and who gather and analyze data to determine the level of risk and appropriate intervention.
The team serves as a safety net for the community and school by:
1. conducting a fact-based, investigative approach to determining how likely a person is to carry out a threat of violence; 2. identifying, assessing and managing appropriate interventions of individuals who are at risk for violence against themselves and others; and 3. providing guidance to students and school employees on recognizing harmful, threatening, or violent behavior that may pose a threat to the community, school, or individual.
When conducting this process with fidelity it leads to a positive and safe school climate. This process is not intended to be punitive or adversarial; rather, it is a way to build trust and situational awareness.