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 of lectures and team exercises conducted at your school. We supply master copies of training materials, interview protocols, and other documents for teams to use in implementing the Guidelines and documenting threats. We provide follow-up consultation to assist schools in successful implementation. Recommended team members include principals and assistant principals, school resource officers, school psychologists, and guidance counselors. Contact us for additional information. Email: youthvio@virginia.edu Office: 434-924-8929 Website: http://youthviolence.edschool.virginia.edu

Cost. Full-day training for all division staff is based on size of group, but most divisions can be trained for $2,000. Cost includes a master copy of training materials and follow-up consultation on threat incidents.

Research option. Contingent upon grant funding approval, we anticipate providing free training to approximately six school divisions willing to participate in research on the implementation of the guidelines. Research participation includes free training for all staff, two interviews with an administrator in each school, and summaries of threat incidents that have occurred during the school year. Contact us to be included on the provisional list.

Training Schedule 

School divisions that have participated in full-day training

Albemarle , Amherst , Appomattox , Charlottesville , Fairfax , Fluvanna, Manassas Park , Nelson, Roanoke County , and Warren in Virginia ; San Diego and Oakland school divisions in California .

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.