Training | Research | College Threat Assessment | Talking to Children about Terrorism

Threat assessment is an approach to school violence prevention recommended by the FBI (O'Toole, 2000) and the U.S. Secret Service and Department of Education. Following release of the FBI's report, the Virginia Youth Violence Project developed specific guidelines and procedures for schools to use when a student threatens to commit a violent act, or engages in behavior that appears to threaten an act of violence. We recommend a problem-solving approach to violence prevention that is a more flexible and less punitive alternative to zero tolerance. We have a short paper describing the Virginia model for student threat assessment.

Training

Information on one-day workshops on student threat assessment, our manual, and training evaluations.

Research

A series of studies using our threat assessment model, including:

Our original field test study

A study of outcomes for students receiving special education

Field-testing in a large urban school system in Memphis, Tennessee

A retrospective comparison of 95 Virginia high schools using our model versus an alternative model

An evaluation of workshop training effects on school staff

College Threat Assessment

Guidelines for responding to student threats of violence on college campuses and additional articles and resources on college safety.

Talking to Children about Terrorism

Advice to teachers and parents on how to talk about terrorist attacks and related threats to safety.