IN THE PRESS
REL Northwest: A Multidisciplinary Approach to School Safety
"Creating environments that are safe and welcoming is critical for protecting the physical and psychological well-being of all members of a school community: students, educators, administrators, and families..." Read.
NPR: When Teens Threaten Violence, A Community Responds With Compassion
"Psychologist John Van Dreal has spent almost 30 years working with troubled kids. Still, it's always unsettling to get the kind of phone call he received one morning eight years ago as he was on his way to a meeting..." Read.
JPR: The Difficult Task of Singling Out School Shooters
"After every school shooting, the standard question is: what might have prevented this? Metal detectors and armed teachers aside, there are efforts to figure out which students are thinking about committing violence on their classmates..." Read.
Esquire: Why Mass Shootings Keep Happening
"Are we helpless to stop mass shootings? Is anyone even trying to stop them? The good news is that the answers are No and Yes. The bad news: The person loading up hasn't gotten the news..." Read.
Echoes of Columbine
"This documentary explores the issue of school shootings and what schools, parents, and law enforcement can do to help prevent these attacks." View.
"How do we prevent the next mass shooting before it happens? That's the question Mother Jones national affairs editor Mark Follman has been researching since 2012, when a gunman killed 12 people at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo." View.
"For many of the young people who've opened fire in schools, the path to violence has common traits. Psychologists and researchers have developed a body of study on the topic. Details are continuing to emerge about how events unfolded at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday. One thing we do know - the shooter was 18. So we wanted to take a step back and look at what's become a familiar pattern - a well-armed young person with a troubled history taking out their rage on others. " View.
Montrose Press: Community orgs partner for school threat assessment
"If addressing potential threats in schools seems daunting, there is now a standardized process for threat assessment that takes a community-oriented approach to helping students..." Read.
NPR: Oregon School Helps Students In Crisis Steer Away from Violence.
"More schools are adopting an evidence-based approach to preventing violence. We examine the root causes of violence in kids, and how intervening and listening can help them change course..." Read.
HBO: Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas Begins its Second Season Tonight, April 5, Exclusively on HBO
"This season focuses on education in America, investigating teacher pay, student mental health, the school-to-prison pipeline and other pressing topics..." Read.
Mother Jones: Inside the Race to Stop the Next Mass Shooter
"Soon after the school year started in September 2000, a police officer working at McNary High in Keizer, Oregon, got a tip about a junior named Erik Ayala..." Read.
Preventing Threats Before Students are Lost
"John Van Dreal, an internationally recognized school safety expert, explains how the Salem-Keizer Threat Assessment System he helped pioneer can be used to guide educators to identify potentially dangerous situations and intervene before they escalate to tragedy. Listen to podcast:" Listen.
"A growing number of schools are adopting an evidence-based approach to preventing violence on their campuses. The plan recognizes that a student contemplating violence is a student in crisis." View.
"The 18-year-old gunman who murdered 19 elementary school students and two teachers in Uvalde, Tex., telegraphed his obsession with violence in social media messages and postings in the days and weeks before the May 24 shooting, by threatening girls with rape, for example, or posting photographs of the semiautomatic rifles he had purchased." View.
KBBL: School Shooters: What's Their Path To Violence?
"It's hard to empathize with someone who carries out a school shooting. The brutality of their crimes is unspeakable. Whether the shootings were at Columbine, at Sandy Hook, or in Parkland, they have traumatized students and communities across the U.S..." Read.
Argus Observer: School officials, law enforcement learn about managing threats
"The Owyhee room at Four Rivers Cultural Center was packed on Wednesday and Thursday as local school officials, law enforcement officials and other local authorities learned about threat assessment and management at schools..." Read.
Statesman Journal: The Difficult Task of Singling Out School Shooters
"Used by dozens of districts nationwide, the Salem-Keizer Threat Response System is considered the gold standard for school prevention efforts..." Read.
Mother Jones: How the Media Inspires Mass Shooters
"In late August, not 10 hours after a disgruntled former TV reporter posted video on Twitter and Facebook of himself gunning down two ex-colleagues in Virginia, the New York Daily News tweeted a preview of its front page for the next day..." Read.
In the Aftermath
"This FBI-produced documentary focuses on best practices after school shooting tragedies, including family reunification, dealing with accompanying trauma, and crisis planning. It highlights the difficult journey of recovery while also giving hope to survivors." View.
"The murder of 19 children and two adults at an elementary school last week in Uvalde, Texas, has renewed calls for gun control legislation at the state and federal level. But while passage of a national gun reform remains elusive, a school district in Oregon pioneered a student behavioral threat assessment program more than 20 years ago to prevent shootings on campus." View.
"In 2019, Texas passed a law that requires every school district and open-enrollment charter school in the state to assemble a team to conduct “behavioral threat assessments." View.