Threat Assessments in the K-12 Education Setting

Abstract

The original threat assessments were developed by the United States Secret Service and the FBI to identify and prevent attacks on public officials. In response to school shootings, the Secret Service and other government agencies recommended Behavioral Threat Assessments be used for students. Behavioral threat assessment (now primarily referred to as threat assessment) is a “systematic approach to violence prevention intended to distinguish serious threats, defined as behaviors or communications in which a person poses a threat of violence, from cases in which the threat is not serious and then to take appropriate prevention steps.” But when a student makes a verbal or written threat, the judgment call can be much more difficult. While students do have some free speech rights on campus, they are more limited than student rights outside of campus or for adults. Threat assessments in schools, correctly used, have the potential to enhance the determination by school officials. The paper also includes the 2022 Supreme Court case, Counterman v. Colorado, which dealt with threats in a criminal context.

Keywords: Threat Assessments, School discipline