Threats directed at our schools often require a significant law enforcement response and can have long lasting negative impacts on our schools. Working with key school stakeholders and law enforcement representatives, these threats must be evaluated and the appropriate response actions must be taken based on the credibility of the threat. In an effort to assist schools in evaluating these threats, over the past two years, Vermont’s Agency of Education and Department of Public Safety have partnered with SIGMA Threat Management Associates to offer threat assessment training to school crisis planing team members and local first response organizations across the state. How to build a collaborative Threat Assessment Team, developing threat assessment protocols and how to identify behaviors that may have a negative impact on our schools are just some of the areas that were highlighted during this training initiative.
According to Marisa Randazzo Ph.D. and Managing Partner at SIGMA Threat Management Associates: The State of Vermont has done impressive work to enhance the safety and security of Vermont schools for students, employees, parents, and visitors alike. The State of Vermont has engaged in a multi-year effort to help Vermont schools engage in best practices to prevent school violence, bringing in international experts on school threat assessment and violence prevention to train Vermont school administrators, faculty, and staff and their school safety partners on what behaviors to look for and how to respond in a way that reduces risk and enhances safety. The State of Vermont is among only a handful of states across the U.S. engaging in such a comprehensive school safety initiative.
In an effort to enhance Vermont’s ability to conduct these threat assessments, the Vermont School Safety Center in partnership with Vermont’s School Crisis Planning Team has developed a threat assessment “guide” that is now a part of Vermont’s School Crisis Planning Guide. For more information about this resource or other school safety resources, please visit Vermont’s School Safety Center web-site at: http://schoolsafety.vermont.gov