Drift Net's School Threat Assessment Training Program

Our program helps schools build strong threat assessment teams and implement best practices, even with limited resources. Learn more and get started!

With around 85% of schools reporting the use of behavioral threat assessments last year, this measure is becoming an increasingly effective tool for preventing violence. Although threat assessments have been practiced for nearly a decade, they are more recently being recognized as an essential preventative measure against violence, with some schools still facing challenges in implementing their own process.

After working with Bienville Parish School District to streamline their emergency planning efforts, their school leadership became interested in onboarding our KnowWhat SMS Threat Assessment to enhance their violence prevention efforts. We’ve found that schools are always eager to improve the wellness and safety of their students and faculty. Often, they are not aware of the available options, but once directed, they are committed to implementing these initiatives effectively.

With Bienville Parish SD being a small community with limited resources in rural Louisiana, we recognized the need for a more comprehensive onboarding and training. Schools in similar situations require more than just a threat assessment program; they need a foundational understanding of the process and the specific responsibilities of all community members involved.

Following discussions with Bienville Parish School District leadership, we decided to develop an in-depth training program to bring their staff up-to-date with threat assessment practices and help them establish an effective program using their existing resources.

Inspired by Bienville Parish’s dedication to community safety, we proudly offer the School Threat Assessment Training Program to all schools seeking to implement threat assessments. Led by Veteran State Police Lieutenant James Dunleavy, these virtual sessions break down threat assessments into their core components. This allows school leaders to identify and leverage their community resources, gain best practice guidance, and create a capable threat assessment team.

“Threats are nuanced, and there's no one-size-fits-all approach that can be universally applied. The process should be tailored to the unique needs and circumstances of each community, with threat assessments remaining flexible to account for a wide range of variables,” said James Dunleavy regarding the program’s development.

What does the School Threat Assessment Training Program entail?

The program is broken up into three 1-hour sessions, starting with basic team structure and concluding with threat management best-practices:

Team:

The Team Structure and Management Training focuses on establishing, organizing, and optimizing the Threat Assessment team. The training will review topics on team member selection, tasks and responsibilities, and support of the school community. District-level administrators and school faculty are ideal participants for this training.

Basic:

The Basic Threat Assessment Training covers the fundamental principles of threat assessment. The Training will provide guidance on establishing basic protocols and procedure, review key principles and investigative themes of threat assessment. This Training is ideal for school faculty and threat assessment team members.

Advanced:

The Advanced Threat Assessment Training reviews concepts that are related to concerning behaviors, warning signs, and school climate. Drawing from research, we will discuss evidence-based best practices to better manage threats that occur within the school population. This Training is recommended for school faculty and threat assessment team members who have a basic foundation in threat assessment.

Let’s get your staff familiar with the threat assessment process! Get started by visiting our Threat Assessment training module.

Jacob Lasswell has been writing at Drift Net for over three years, bringing much-needed exposure to the reality of mass violence in the United States. Engaging with the nation’s security and violence prevention thought-leaders, Jacob brings the perspectives of the victims and onlookers of mass violence to the forefront, with an emphasis of finding solutions.