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Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit #21

Helping Children Learn

Threat Assessment

In June of 2019, legislation was enacted to assist schools in creating safer environments. Article XIII-E: Threat Assessment was added to the Pennsylvania School Code. This law requires that school entities establish threat assessment team(s), procedures, and reporting protocols.

The threat assessment process is a prevention strategy used to identify and assess threats of violence before the act occurs. Statistics show that students usually plan out an attack in advance, exhibiting observable behaviors and making others aware of their plans. It may be possible to prevent future school attacks from occurring through awareness education, following reporting procedures and using the threat assessment team(s) to help students who may have the intent and capacity to commit an act of violence or do harm to themselves. Schools are not only a place to learn, but they should also be a place of safety and security for the students, staff and community members who occupy them. The school community’s awareness and participation in the threat assessment process will help to ensure everyone’s safety.

Article XIII-E: Threat Assessment

What do Schools Need to Do?
Definition of Threat

Threat is a communication or behavior that indicates an individual poses a danger to the safety of school staff or students through acts of violence or other behavior that would cause harm to self or others. The threat may be expressed/communicated behaviorally, orally, visually, in writing, electronically, or through any other means. These actions can be considered a threat regardless of whether it is observed by or communicated directly to the target of the threat or observed by a third party, and regardless of whether the target of the threat is aware of the threat.
The Threat Assessment Team
There are some positions that are required by law to be on the team and there are others that may be assigned based on the needs of the school.

When a student is referred to the threat assessment team, it is also a good idea to consult with or engage the participation of others who know the student well, whether that be a teacher, aide, custodian, bus driver/aide, secretary, food service worker, coach, or other school staff person.

Team Requirements

Each team shall include individuals with expertise in:
- School health
- Counseling, school psychology or social work
- Special education
- School administration
- Also include:
  - The school safety and security coordinator or a designee
  - Other school staff or community resources who may serve as regular team members or be consulted during the threat assessment process, as appropriate, and as determined necessary by the team, including:
    
    School security personnel
    
    Law enforcement agency representation
    
    Behavioral health professionals
    
    The individual identified by the school entity to receive reports from the Safe2Say Program
    
    An individual who serves on the student assistance program (SAP)
    
    Juvenile probation professionals
CLIU #21 Threat Assessment Teams

CLIU #21 Threat Assessment Teams are located in each of our center-based locations and have been trained using the Comprehensive Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG) Model.

The CSTAG model of threat assessment is an approach to violence prevention that emphasizes early attention to problems such as bullying, teasing, and other forms of student conflict before they escalate into violent behavior. School staff members are encouraged to adopt a flexible, problem-solving approach, as distinguished from a more punitive, zero tolerance approach to student misbehavior. As a result of this training, the model is intended to generate broader changes in the nature of staff-student interactions around disciplinary matters and to encourage a more positive school climate in which students feel treated with fairness and respect. Consistent with this goal, a pre-post survey study of 351 school staff members who completed the Virginia workshop found that participants became less anxious about the possibility of a school homicide, more willing to use threat assessment methods to help students resolve conflicts, and less inclined to use a zero tolerance approach. Similar effects were found for principals, psychologists, counselors, social workers, and law enforcement officers.

The guidelines follow a five-step decision-tree. In brief, the first two steps are a triage process in which team members investigate a reported threat and determine whether the threat can be readily resolved as a transient threat that is not a serious threat. Examples of transient threats are jokes or statements made in anger that are expressions of feeling or figures of speech rather than expressions of a genuine intent to harm someone.

Any threat that cannot be clearly identified and resolved as transient is treated as a substantive threat. Substantive threats always require protective action to prevent the threat from being carried out. The remaining three steps guide the team through more extensive assessment and response based on the seriousness of the threat. In the most serious cases, the team conducts a safety evaluation that includes both a law enforcement investigation and a mental health assessment of the student. The culmination of the threat assessment is the development of a safety plan that is designed to address the problem or conflict underlying the threat and prevent the act of violence from taking place. For both transient and substantive threats, there is an emphasis on helping students to resolve conflicts and minimizing the use of zero-tolerance suspensions as a disciplinary response.

Threat Classifications
- Not a threat
- Transient
- Serious Substantive
- Very Serious Substantive
CSTAG – School Threat Assessment Decision Tree
School Staff and Mandated Reporting

School employees shall act immediately to address an imminent threat. Imminent threats and emergencies shall be promptly reported to a law enforcement agency.

School employees and other mandated reporters shall follow the responsibilities regarding reporting suspected child abuse as required by law.

Act 126 – Child Abuse Recognition and Reporting Act

Keep Kids Safe – Department of Human Services

Nothing shall limit the authority of a school entity to refer a student to the student assistance program without referral by a team, so long as the student's behavior does not indicate a threat to the safety of the student, other students, school employees, school facilities, the community or others.

The goal of this process is to ensure the safety of the school community, and also to ensure that the student presenting the threat receives assistance through a range of strategies already established in the school.
Recognizing and Reporting At-Risk-Behaviors
Recognizing At-Risk Behaviors

There are observable behaviors which may not be normal and are out-of-character for most students. These behaviors may lead to acts of violence.

If the behaviors are noticed early on and dealt with through the strategies that are in place in the school, then appropriate measures can be taken to assist the student before the violence occurs.

Some observable, at-risk behaviors include:
- Unusual social distancing or isolation of individuals from peers and family members
- Sullen or depressed behavior from an otherwise friendly and positive person
- Out of context outbursts of verbal or physical aggression
- Increased levels of agitation, frustration and anger
- Confrontational, accusatory or blaming behavior
- An unusual interest in weapons
- Fixation on violence as means of addressing a grievance
Reporting Threats and Out-of-Character Behaviors
- Report to school Administration or Threat Assessment Team member
- Safe2Say Something Program
  - This program, mandated under Pennsylvania Act 44 to be implemented in all school districts in January 2019, teaches students and staff how to recognize warning signs and signals, especially within social media, of individuals who may be a threat to themselves or others. Further, it educates them to SAY SOMETHING to a trusted adult OR to use the Safe2Say anonymous reporting system.
Educates participants to:
- Recognize the signs and signals of at-risk behaviors, especially within social media.
- Take every sign and signal seriously and to act quickly to get help by talking to a trusted adult or by reporting it anonymously through the Safe2Say reporting system.
- Respond to and manage the submitted tip via school-based multi-disciplinary educator and administrator teams
Adults and youth are able to report tips anonymously through the Office of Attorney General’s 24/7 Crisis Center (1-844-SAF2SAY), through a mobile app (apple and android), or through Pennsylvania’s Safe2Say Something website www.safe2saypa.org. Examples that may be reported through Safe2Say include, but are not limited to:

Resources

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