As school safety stays a critical issue for college kids, teachers and families, researchers on the University of Missouri are using a $2 million grant from the Department of Justice to assist discover and avert threats students or others may make on school grounds involving potential harm to themselves or others.
The project, which is able to partner with as much as 26 rural school districts throughout Missouri, can be fully implemented by fall 2023 and connect with the faculties’ Wi-Fi servers to watch online activity for threatening language or images.
If a possible threat is captured through videos, text messages, emails or social media posts, the college could be alerted so potential assessments and interventions can occur to avoid anyone harming themselves or others. The opposite key component of that is creating threat assessment teams, which could include school principals, teachers, school resource officers, school psychologists, counselors, social staff and law enforcement individuals, as we can be training them on easy methods to respond and intervene.”
Keith Herman, the grant’s primary investigator and a Curators’ Distinguished Professor within the MU College of Education and Human Development
For threats involving suicide, an evidence-based approach called the Columbia Protocol, which has been utilized in schools for many years, will provide a scientific way for the threat assessment teams to speak with individuals of interest to find out the extent of risk and best practices for interventions to avoid self-harm.
For potential threats to harm others, an evidence-based approach developed on the University of Virginia can be utilized, which involves the threat assessment team discussing step-by-step processes for the way best to reply, including possible involvement from local law enforcement members.
“Rural schools are inclined to have less resources in these areas, and we have now heard from many rural Missouri school districts that they currently haven’t got these threat assessment teams and systematic procedures in place. So we wish to assist implement these resources to support their schools and communities,” Herman said. “Obviously there was an increased highlight on recent school shootings, and we also know many students have been struggling throughout the pandemic with mental health concerns. So hopefully the mixture of the technology and the trainings will make schools safer, and those that work in the faculties will feel more confident in responding and intervening when threats arise.”
Herman is co-director of the Missouri Prevention Science Institute and the National Center for Rural School Mental Health, co-developer of the Boone County Family Access Center of Excellence and a board member for the Boone County Schools Mental Health Coalition.
“My overall goal is to create nurturing environments for college kids to thrive, and safety is at the muse of a nurturing environment,” Herman said. “Partnerships are all about listening to the needs of the faculties after which providing the resources and expertise to fulfill those needs.”
Source:
University of Missouri-Columbia