Training Available on

Guidelines for Responding to Student Threats of Violence

This document is available in PDF format.

The Virginia Youth Violence Project is offering training to school divisions in using our Guidelines for Responding to Student Threats of Violence. These Guidelines are designed to prepare school-based teams to evaluate and triage student threats of violence, quickly resolve minor threats, and take appropriate action in response to more serious threats of violence. Participants will learn to:

• Apply principles of threat assessment to manage potentially dangerous situations.
• Distinguish transient (minor) from substantive (more serious) threats of violence made by students.
• Use a decision tree to resolve student threat situations in a standard, fair, and objective manner.
• Make appropriate use of mental health evaluations and psychological services.
• Collaborate effectively with school resource officers or other law enforcement officers.
• Identify strategies to manage threats and reduce risk of future violence.
• Avoid legal and liability pitfalls.

The Virginia Guidelines were designed to implement recommendations of the FBI’s study of school shootings and incorporate findings from reports by the U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Department of Education. The Guidelines were developed in consultation with teams from two Virginia school divisions and field-tested in 35 schools during the 2001-02 school year. The Guidelines were found to be an effective and efficient means of resolving student threat incidents. A follow-up study of almost 200 student threats of violence found that none of the threats were carried out, and almost all students were able to return to school. Threat assessment permits schools to resolve almost all threats without use of expulsion or long-term suspension. A recent study published in School Psychology Review shows how schools can use student threat assessment.

Training consists of a full-day workshop and team exercises conducted at your school. We provide follow-up consultation to assist schools in successful implementation. Recommended team members include principals and assistant principals, school resource officers, school psychologists, social workers, and guidance counselors. Contact us for additional information. Email: youthvio@virginia.edu Office: 434-924-8929 Website: http://youthviolence.edschool.virginia.edu

Cost: Cost of training is based on the size of the group and includes follow-up consultation on threat incidents. School districts are expected to purchase a copy of the Guidelines for Responding to Student Threats of Violence manual for each participant. The manual is available from Sopris West (http://www.sopriswest.com/) at a cost of $37.49.

Training Schedule 

School divisions that have participated in our training:

In Virginia: Albemarle , Alleghany, Amherst , Appomattox , Bedford, Charlottesville, Clarke, Culpeper, Fairfax , Fauquier, Fluvanna, Henrico, Manassas Park , Nelson, Patrick, Powhatan, Richmond, Roanoke County, Russell, and Surry
In California: San Diego and Oakland

Professional conferences:

American Psychological Association, Georgia Association of Student Assistance Professionals, Hamilton Fish Institute, Indiana State Department of Education, National Association of School Psychologists, National Association of Student Assistance Professionals, Washington State Department of Education, Quebec World Conference on School Violence

Faculty Dewey G. Cornell, Ph.D. is a forensic clinical psychologist and Professor of Education at the University of Virginia , where he holds the Curry Memorial Chair in Education. Dr. Cornell directs the Virginia Youth Violence Project and has studied youth violence for the past twenty years. Dr. Cornell assisted the FBI’s National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime in its study of school shootings and has consulted with many school divisions on safety and violence prevention. He is author of Designing safer schools for Virginia: A guide to keeping students safe from violence and co-author of Current issues in school violence research. Peter L. Sheras, Ph.D., ABPP, is a clinical psychologist and Professor of Education at the University of Virginia , and he is associate director of the Virginia Youth Violence Project. Dr. Sheras has been in clinical practice for over twenty-five years, and specializes in working with troubled and suicidal youth and their families. Dr. Sheras served on the writing panel for Early Warning/Timely Response produced by the U.S. Department of Education and distributed to every school in the United States . Dr. Sheras is co-developer of the Stress Index for Parents of Adolescents and the recent author of Your child: Bully or victim? Understanding and ending school yard tyranny.

Development of the Guidelines for Responding to Student Threats of Violence was supported by the Jessie Ball duPont Fund.