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Q&A: Preventing School Violence by Appropriately Responding to Threats

Q&A: Preventing School Violence by Appropriately Responding to Threats

School safety expert Dewey Cornell explains why behavioral threat assessment is an effective strategy to help prevent acts of violence in schools.

Audrey Breen

October 10, 2024

A forensic clinical psychologist, Professor Dewey Cornell has been studying school safety and school violence prevention at the UVA School of Education and Human Development for nearly 40 years.

School shootings, like the one at Apalachee High School in September, are devastating. Often acts of violence like this follow some kind of threat of violence that authorities did not pursue. Yet, the large majority of threats made by students do not result in acts of violence. According to Cornell, behavioral threat assessment is an effective strategy schools can use to avoid underreacting to serious threats and overreacting to unserious threats.

In the wake of the shooting in Georgia, Cornell’s expertise was sought by news outlets across the country, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, and ProPublica. On the day of this shooting, he and Catherine Bradshaw, University Professor and senior associate dean for research at the School of Education, were presenting their research to a workshop on behavioral threat assessment convened by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

We spoke with Cornell to learn more about how threat assessment can be used to prevent future school violence and how efforts like the National Academies workshop can contribute to keeping schools safe.

Q: What is behavioral threat assessment and management?

Behavioral threat assessment and management in schools is carried out by multi-disciplinary support teams to assess when a student engages in concerning behavior, and based on that assessment, take appropriate steps to manage or reduce the risk of violence. The team is determined by school staffing levels, but is often comprised of one or more mental health professionals, an administrator, and a law enforcement officer. The team also obtains input from teachers and other school staff who know the student.

We developed the Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG) as a protocol for multidisciplinary teams to interview students, gather information from multiple sources and follow criteria to decide how serious a threat is and what should be done about it.

Part of the threat assessment is to really understand what the student needs. What is the problem or conflict that's going on? That can range from a disagreement among peers that can be worked out in a counselor’s office to a mental health crisis or a post traumatic reaction that requires more extensive services.

We know from our research that in most cases, a student is blowing off steam and they don't seriously intend to physically harm other people. When the threat is more serious—maybe the student has acquired a weapon or they've talked to other people about their plans—the team will conduct a more extensive assessment and take protective action, involving law enforcement when appropriate.

Q: How many schools are currently using threat assessment teams?

According to a recent survey, 85% of U.S. public schools report having a behavioral threat assessment team. Now that raises a lot of questions, such as how well are they trained? What model are they using? How effective are they? Then we want to make sure that when schools use threat assessment, they are doing it in a fair and equitable manner.

The number one way to measure the effectiveness of a threat assessment is safety. We don't want anyone to be physically injured. We've done research to show that very few threats are carried out. In a recent study of more than 14,000 cases in Florida, our team found a serious injury occurred in less than 1% of those cases. But we want that number to be zero.

We also want to go beyond safety. Threat assessment can have positive impacts on resolving conflicts, reducing bullying, and improving school climate.

Q. What is “zero tolerance” and why doesn’t it align with threat assessment?

A. Zero tolerance is a philosophy of school discipline that says not only are we not going to allow this, but we're going to respond in a harsh, automatic way to every incidence, regardless of the seriousness. Examples of this covered in the news include a child getting expelled for bringing a water pistol to school, or for bringing a piece of plastic from his GI Joe action figure.

Research shows that school suspension or school exclusion as a disciplinary strategy doesn’t work. It doesn't improve the student's behavior. It doesn't make the school safer. It also doesn't send a good message to other students that makes them improve their behavior. Instead, it seems to be a harsh, negative consequence that doesn't make things better, and often makes things worse.

There are times when a student can't function in school and needs a different setting, and sometimes there's safety reasons for a student not to be in school. But the vast majority of times, students are being removed for school simply because people are frustrated and aren’t exactly sure what to do.

The recent increase in student arrests following the Georgia shooting raises a lot of concern that authorities are over-reacting and not using a threat assessment approach. We are also seeing a lot of interest in physical security measures like panic buttons. Schools are spending billions on technical security measures. However, when we look at the facts of this case, as well as other school shootings, we see that a threat assessment approach could have prevented the shooting. You use a panic button when it’s too late and you are just trying to minimize the violence, not prevent it. Threat assessment is designed to intervene long before the student comes to school with a gun.

Q. How can efforts like the National Academies workshop contribute to keeping schools safe?

The National Academies was conducting a review of the evidence in support of school threat assessment. This could help guide schools in using threat assessment effectively. We have accumulated a sizeable body of research supporting the use of the CSTAG model which we developed and have been studying for more than two decades. There is more to be done, and the report by the National Academies will help us pursue the gaps and encourage others to join in the effort.