Developing and Operating a School Threat Assessment Program to Promote School Safety
Format
Individual Presentation
First Presenter's Institution
Stephen F. Austin State University
First Presenter’s Email Address
summerpannell@gmail.com
First Presenter's Brief Biography
Dr. Summer Pannell currently serves as Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at Stephen F. Austin State University and as Director of the National Institute for Restorative Discipline. She has over two decades of experience as an educational leadership faculty member and P-12 administrator and teacher. During her tenure as principal, she received a Champion of Change Award for her school closing achievement gaps and served on collaborative committees to develop statewide principal and teacher evaluation systems. Dr. Pannell holds superintendent, principal, and teacher certification in multiple states and is a certified trainer in Restorative Discipline Practices, Neuro-Linguistic Practitioner (NLP), and Behavior Threat Assessment.
Second Presenter's Institution
Georgia Southern University
Second Presenter’s Email Address
jmcbrayer@georgiasouthern.edu
Second Presenter's Brief Biography
Dr. Juliann Sergi McBrayer is an Associate Professor in Educational Leadership at Georgia Southern University and Co-Director of the National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Research Center centered around scholarly practitioners and interdisciplinary research via community partnerships. She holds a Doctorate and Educational Specialist from Georgia Southern University, a Master’s degree from Ohio University, and a Bachelor's degree from SUNY College at Buffalo. She has served over 20 years as an educational leadership associate and assistant professor, educational program coordinator, instructional school leader, professional development and federal programs coordinator, classroom teacher, and teacher leader. As a scholarly practitioner, her research interests include the development, implementation, and assessment of educational leadership and teacher preparation programs with a focus on purposeful, collaborative, and sustainable professional learning and programming to ensure effectiveness and accountability while emphasizing community partnerships.
Third Presenter's Institution
Stephen F. Austin State University
Third Presenter’s Email Address
uriegasb@sfasu.edu
Third Presenter's Brief Biography
Dr. Uriegas is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Services and Educational Leadership at Stephen F. Austin State University where he teaches in their M.Ed. and Ed.D. programs. Prior to his arrival at SFA, Dr. Uriegas spent 17 years as a teacher, coach, and principal in Texas public schools. Dr. Uriegas holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership from Texas A&M University-Kingsville. Brian’s research interests are centered on rural education with foci on post-secondary readiness, students of poverty, career and technical education, diversity, equity, and inclusion, school leadership and advancement for Latinx students and faculty in higher education. Dr. Uriegas recently completed his term as Chair of the SFA Faculty Senate.
Location
Session Four
Strand #1
Hands: Safety & Violence Prevention
Strand #2
Health: Mental & Physical Health
Relevance
As educational institutions continue to grapple with the ongoing issue of school violence, it is essential to explore effective strategies for maintaining a safe learning environment. School threat assessment programs have emerged as a promising approach to preventing acts of violence. They are essential in promoting safe schools as this comprehensive approach serves as the foundation for identifying threats and carrying out a plan to prevent violence.
Brief Program Description
School threat assessment is a proactive and multidisciplinary process aimed at identifying and mitigating potential threats within educational institutions. Often conducted by a team comprising administrators, educators, mental health professionals, and law enforcement officials, this approach combines fact-finding, risk analysis, and intervention strategies to prevent acts of violence.
A school threat assessment program is a systematic approach to school safety driven by six primary responsibilities. This session will explore behavioral threat assessments, identify pathways to violence, and establish eight steps to addressing threats. Participants will gain the knowledge and skills to build an effective school threat assessment program.
Summary
Keeping schools safe involves not just knowing how to respond to violent events but working to prevent them as well. Threat Assessment is a means to do just that. Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management provides a proactive, evidence-based approach for identifying individuals who may pose a threat and for providing interventions before a violent incident occurs. An effective, functioning threat assessment team is a critical component of keeping your school safe and preventing violence.
This session introduces the concept of threat assessment and outlines how a threat assessment program functions in a school setting. The session explores the process of how a threat assessment team identifies, assesses, and manages threats. The session also includes guidance for forming and implementing a team in a school or district.
Evidence
Research of U.S. School Shootings has shown that these violent events can be prevented because the acts are typically planned in advance, the actors tell others beforehand about their violent plans, and the acts are often carried out because there is a level of desperation or the view that violence is the only option left to solve problems (Texas Center for School Safety, n.d.). According to the Safe School Initiative, in 81% of studied school shootings, other students had information relevant to the attack beforehand (US Department of Education, n.d.). Moreover, the study demonstrated that threat assessment teams successfully addressed numerous threats and prevented potential violence.
School threat assessment is a proactive strategy that aims to mitigate the risk of violence by identifying and addressing potential threats within educational settings. The threat assessment process provides an evidence-based approach toward identifying students or other individuals who pose a threat, intervening with appropriate resources, and ultimately improving the safety and well-being of the individual of concern, the situation, and the school.
Learning Objective 1
Identify the fundamentals of threat assessment and why schools should use it
Learning Objective 2
Identify the decisions to be made and policies needed before starting a school threat assessment program
Learning Objective 3
Build a threat assessment program using the 8-step protocol
Keyword Descriptors
school safety, threat assessment
Presentation Year
2024
Start Date
3-5-2024 8:30 AM
Recommended Citation
Pannell, Summer; McBrayer, Juliann; and Uriegas, Brian, "Developing and Operating a School Threat Assessment Program to Promote School Safety" (2024). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 32.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2024/2024/32
Developing and Operating a School Threat Assessment Program to Promote School Safety
Session Four
School threat assessment is a proactive and multidisciplinary process aimed at identifying and mitigating potential threats within educational institutions. Often conducted by a team comprising administrators, educators, mental health professionals, and law enforcement officials, this approach combines fact-finding, risk analysis, and intervention strategies to prevent acts of violence.
A school threat assessment program is a systematic approach to school safety driven by six primary responsibilities. This session will explore behavioral threat assessments, identify pathways to violence, and establish eight steps to addressing threats. Participants will gain the knowledge and skills to build an effective school threat assessment program.
