I never wanted to study mass murder or violence of any kind. I was doing my internship for my Ph.D. in counseling psychology at a psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents when the attack at Columbine High School occurred. Within ten days of that attack, a 16-year-old boy was admitted to the hospital because he was viewed as a Columbine-type risk. I was assigned to conduct a psychological evaluation of him. Then another potential school shooter was admitted. And another. Seeking insight into this population and learning how to recognize the warning signs and prevent impending attacks has become my life’s work.
I wrote
Warning Signs: Identifying School Shooters Before They Strike
Dr. Dewey Cornell is the foremost research of threat assessment in K-12 schools.
This book provides step-by-step guidelines on creating and running threat assessment teams. Dr. Cornell provides multiple sample documents and allows them to be copied, making this a very user-friendly text.
He also explains his research demonstrating the effectiveness and benefits of utilizing threat assessment teams.
Presenting the only K-12 school threat assessment model supported by controlled studies, this new manual is a sequel to the author's original manual, Guidelines for Responding to Student Threats of Violence. The new manual retains the Virginia Student Threat Assessment Guidelines (VSTAG), but adds new research, improved forms, and more comprehensive coverage of student and non-student threats. Used nationwide. Training available from the author at www.schoolta.com.
John Van Dreal is a school psychologist with decades of experience developing the Salem-Keizer model of violence prevention in schools.
In addition to providing comprehensive threat assessment guidelines, the book also discusses other safety issues including dating violence, workplace violence, domestic violence, and stalking. Whereas some works related to school safety focus solely on students as potential perpetrators, this book also discusses dangers posed by adults.
Assessing Student Threats: Implementing the Salem-Keizer System, 2nd Edition is a manual for the application of a threat assessment system that follows the recommendations of the Safe Schools Initiative and the prescriptive outline provided by the FBI. Written from an educator's perspective with contributing authors from Law Enforcement, Public Mental Health, and the District Attorney's office, it contains an introduction to the basic concepts of threat assessment, a review of the research, and an outlined process for the application of a comprehensive, yet expeditious multi-disciplinary system. The book also includes the forms and protocols needed to assess threats, document concerns…
At the age of forty-nine, Laurie Woodford rents out her house, packs her belongings into two suitcases, and leaves her life in upstate New York to relocate to Seoul, South Korea. What begins as an opportunity to teach college English in Asia evolves into a nomadic adventure.
This is another excellent guide to establishing and running threat assessment teams in K-12 schools.
A particular strength, however, is the focus on not only detecting threats, but managing them. The discussion of safety plans and how to work with students who are at risk for violence, as well as the case histories illustrating this process, add significantly to the value of this book.
In 15-Minute Focus: Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management for K-12 Schools, Dr. Melissa A. Louvar Reeves explains the interrelated factors that play a role in a person’s decision to plan and carry out an act of violence.
Every year, stories about violence in schools make headlines around the world. And every year, questions surface: How could this have been prevented? What were the warning signs? What changes do we need to make in our schools and communities to prevent this from happening yet again?
This book will help answer those questions, as you learn about the factors that affect decision-making,…
This book is an excellent guide to threat assessment and violence prevention in higher education.
It includes material on threats posed by students as well as employees. What I particularly appreciate about this work is that it includes numerous case examples of therapeutic work with people who presented a risk of violence.
This clinical focus is rare in works on this topic and makes this book especially important.
"Harm to Others offers students and clinicians an effective way to increase their knowledge of and training in violence risk and threat assessment, while providing a comprehensive examination of current treatment approaches. In an easy-to-understand, jargon-free manner, Dr. Van Brunt shares his observations, extensive clinical expertise, and the latest research on what clinicians should be aware of when performing risk and threat assessments.
Features Numerous examples from recent mass shootings and rampage violence to help explain the motivations and risk factors of those who make threats Two unique, detailed case transcripts to demonstrate how to conduct a threat assessment Treatment…
Reduce stress, ease anxiety, and increase inner peace—one day at a time—with a year of easy-to-follow mindfulness meditation techniques. Certified mindfulness teacher, bestselling author, ultramarathoner, wife, and dog-mom Nita Sweeney shares mindfulness meditation practices to help anyone break free from worry and self-judgment.
This book is the remarkable story of a remarkable woman whose compassion for her students preventing a school massacre.
Unlike the other texts I’m recommending, this book will not tell you how to conduct threat assessments. It is an inspirational story that demonstrates the power of love and interpersonal connections to make our schools safer.
The bottom line is that the more that our schools are places where children feel that at least one adult cares about them, the safer they will be. This book portrays the kind of compassion that can save lives.
On September 28, 2016, school counselor Molly Hudgens was in her office at Sycamore Middle School when a fourteen-year-old armed with a semiautomatic handgun and an additional magazine of ammunition came to her in the counseling department. His plan was to kill people on campus. He told Hudgens she was the only person who could talk him out of it. After ninety minutes of talking with the young man, and ultimately praying on her knees with him, he relinquished the gun with no shots fired and no lives lost.
Dr. Langman’s timely book presents practical, research-based guidance on anticipating and preventing mass attacks. Warning Signs is for all members of a school community, including school personnel, mental health professionals, law enforcement officers, parents, and students. Drawing on lessons learned from dozens of thwarted plots and deadly attacks, Warning Signs provides the insight necessary to keep schools safe.
The constellation we know as Taurus goes all the way back to cave paintings of aurochs at Lascaux. This book traces the story of the bull in the sky, a journey through the history of what has become known as the sacred bull.
This memoir chronicles the lives of three generations of women with a passion for reading, writing, and travel. The story begins in 1992 in an unfinished attic in Brooklyn as the author reads a notebook written by her grandmother nearly 100 years earlier. This sets her on a 30-year search…
