成人抖阴

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Every school shooting can be stopped 鈥� but educators and police must identify youth with an affinity for violence and spring to action before a single shot is fired.

That鈥檚 the message that federal law enforcement officials touted Tuesday during a first-ever hosted by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a division of the Department of Homeland Security. While a demographic profile of school shooters doesn鈥檛 exist, according to , soon-to-be gunmen exhibit signs that can be identified prior to attacks 鈥� such as a fixation on violence or a history of depression. 

Officials endorsed 鈥渢hreat assessment,鈥� an approach pioneered by the Secret Service that鈥檚 become a common but controversial strategy in schools to predict future perpetrators and prevent targeted campus violence. The Secret Service is part of Homeland Security.

鈥淲e鈥檝e seen the tragedies that have happened when that information, on behavior that objectively elicits concern, was not acted on,鈥� said Lina Alathari, chief of the . 鈥淏ut we also need to make sure we鈥檙e setting a lower threshold for what we want to intervene with 鈥� such as being bullied, depression, suicidality 鈥� because we鈥檝e also seen those in the background of these students that resorted to violence.鈥�

Following the mass school shooting in May at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school, districts statewide are set to receive for campus security, including for the creation of threat assessment teams. 

Yet the deployment of such teams, which generally include school administrators, mental health officials and police officers, has civil rights groups on edge. Critics warn the approach could misidentify struggling students as future gunmen and unnecessarily push them into the juvenile justice system. While school shootings remain statistically rare, student behaviors that are factors in threat assessments 鈥� like alcohol use and a history of mental health issues 鈥� are exceedingly common.

Such concerns were largely downplayed at this week鈥檚 summit, a three-day virtual event where law enforcement officials, educators and other experts gathered to offer recommendations in responding to a range of campus security risks, including mass school shootings, cyber attacks and online extremism. 

Steven Driscoll, the threat assessment center鈥檚 assistant chief, stressed that the approach is not 鈥渂ased on profiles or identifying types of students鈥� but rather a focus on identifying threatening behaviors and intervening early. 

鈥淪chools need training not only on the behavioral threat assessment process best practices but also on things like implicit biases which have historically permeated a variety of school-based programs,鈥� Driscoll said. 

In a letter to the Education Department last year, a coalition of 50 student civil rights groups warned that the adoption of threat assessment in schools is 鈥渓ikely pushing many children of color and children with disabilities out of school, into the school-to-prison pipeline.鈥� 

鈥淭hese 鈥榯hreat assessments鈥� are likely to target large numbers of children who aren鈥檛 actual threats 鈥� including disproportionate numbers of children of color and children with disabilities 鈥� and cause them significant and lasting harm, while doing little or nothing to increase safety in schools,鈥� according to the letter, which was signed by groups including the National Center for Youth Law, the National Disability Rights Network and the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates. 鈥淚n addition, they may refer children to services that do not exist.鈥�

Last year, a analyzed 67 school violence plots that were thwarted between 2006 and 2018, finding that plotters in each case were met with criminal charges or arrests. Yet the 鈥減rimary objective鈥� of threat assessments is not to administer discipline, the report notes, but to 鈥渋dentify students in crisis or distress and provide robust interventions, before their behavior escalates to the point of criminality.鈥� 

Amy Lowder, the director of student safety and well-being at a suburban Charlotte, North Carolina school district, acknowledged during the summit that threat assessments conducted improperly can have detrimental effects on youth, including unnecessary student expulsions and juvenile justice referrals. That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 important, she said, for threat assessment teams to take 鈥渁 whole-child approach in gathering the necessary information鈥� about students causing concerns. 

Meanwhile, Greg Johnson, a high school principal from West Liberty, Ohio, said that school leaders must balance students鈥� civil rights against their need to ensure campuses are secure. Johnson was principal of West Liberty High School in 2017 when a classmate. 

鈥淵ou鈥檝e got that balance because you want to support student rights and individual rights but you also want to keep people safe and that鈥檚 a huge responsibility,鈥� Johnson said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a huge responsibility to keep your students safe.鈥� 

In an interview with 成人抖阴 that opened the summit, Homeland Security Secretary Alejando Mayorkas noted that there have been more than , more than any other year on record. 

Given the reality that school shooters often leak their plans to friends or online, summit panelists also endorsed a need to monitor students on the internet 鈥� a practice that has raised a separate set of civil rights and digital privacy concerns. That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 important for districts to employ experts in digital analyses, said Colton Easton, the project and training manager at Safer Schools Together, a Canadian-based, for-profit company that offers threat-assessment training and a team of threat analysts to assist districts in investigations. 

鈥淢aybe a student made a threat involving a gun and we see that gun posted on TikTok, we would consider that behaviors consistent with the threat and law enforcement could obtain a search warrant and remove access to the means,鈥� Easton said. 鈥淭oday, digital leakage is that golden ticket for school safety and threat assessment teams.鈥�

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