Response of school personnel to student threat assessment training

Abstract

School safety has become an important area of concern for school improvement. This study examined the effects of staff training as means of improving school responses to student threats of violence. A multidisciplinary sample of 351 staff from 2 school divisions completed pre-post training surveys as part of a 1-day training program using the Guidelines for Responding to Student Threats of Violence (Cornell & Sheras, 2006). Analysis of pre-post surveys found large changes in staff attitudes toward school safety and violence prevention efforts. There was a substantial decrease in concerns about school homicide and increased awareness of effective violence prevention efforts. There was a drop in support for zero tolerance and profiling approaches, along with increased knowledge of threat assessment principles and concepts. These changes were sustained across school divisions serving a challenging urban population and a more affluent, suburban population. Similar effects were found across all school personnel. These findings demonstrate the viability of training staff in a student threat assessment approach.

Prevention of Targeted School Violence by Responding to Students' Psychosocial Crises: The NETWASS Program

“…These results are consistent with other studies of threat assessment. For example, evaluation studies of the Virginia Student Threat Assessment Guidelines in the United States have shown that 1‐day staff training has a substantial effect on the attitudes and knowledge of school personnel across disciplines, including school principals, psychologists, counselors, social workers, and school‐based police officers (Allen, Cornell, Lorek, & Sheras, ; Cornell, Allen, & Fan, ), including substantial changes in knowledge and attitudes regarding school violence, school discipline, and threat assessment.…”

Principal Attitudes Regarding Zero Tolerance and Racial Disparities in School Suspensions

“…The Virginia Guidelines represent a threat assessment approach to school discipline that is intended in part to give school authorities an alternative to zero tolerance when students engage in threatening behavior. Two studies found that training school administrators (and other school staff) in the use of threat assessment reduces their support for zero tolerance and school suspension (Allen, Cornell, Lorek, & Sheras, ; Cornell et al., 2012). In addition, three studies have found that schools adopting the Virginia Guidelines have reductions in their suspension rates (Cornell, Gregory, & Fan, 2011; Cornell, Sheras, Gregory, & Fan, 2009).…”

A retrospective study of school safety conditions in high schools using the Virginia threat assessment guidelines versus alternative approaches.

“…For example, the training stressed that students who threatened to kill someone did not need to be given a long-term suspension, and that almost all students who made such threats could continue in school, provided that the threat assessment procedures were followed. A study of workshop participants showed large improvements in staff attitudes toward threat assessment principles and decreased endorsement of zero-tolerance approaches after training (Allen et al, 2008).…”