Teams should organize their information gathering around several themes or areas pertaining to the student’s actions, circumstances, and any other relevant threat assessment factors.
Addressing each theme is necessary for a complete assessment and may uncover other avenues of inquiry to help determine whether the student is at risk for engaging in violence.
Using the themes to identify where the student might be struggling will help the Team identify the most appropriate resources.
Keep in mind, there is no need to wait until the Team has completed all interviews or addressed every theme before taking action. As soon as an area for intervention is identified, suitable management strategies should be enacted.
Students may have a variety of motives that place them at risk for engaging in harmful behavior, whether to themselves or others.
If you can discover the student’s motivation for engaging in the concerning behavior that brought him/her to the attention of the Team, then you can understand more about the student’s goals.
The Team should also assess how far the student may be willing to go to achieve these goals, and what or who may be a potential target.
Understanding motive further allows the Team to develop management strategies that can direct the student away from violent choices.
On February 12, 2016, a 15-year-old female student fatally shot her girlfriend while they were sitting under a covered patio at their high school and then fatally shot herself.
In several notes found after the incident, the student explained that she carried out her attack because her girlfriend had recently confessed that she was contemplating ending their relationship.
She also wrote in her notes that she hated who she was and that learning her girlfriend wanted to end their relationship “destabilized” her.
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