| Can school and community attacks by young people be prevented? Dr. John Van Dreal believes that when school and community members understand threatening behavior, know how to identify signs of attack, and can move quickly to assess and de-escalate a situation such attacks can be prevented. With the Salem-Keizer Cascade preventive behavioral threat assessment system as a model, this presentation will provide a template for building a sustainable, school-based prevention and threat assessment system composed of school behavioral intervention teams and community-based collaboration. The program will highlight how threats of violence can be systematically investigated and the degree of risk those threats indicate. This program will assist professionals from schools, mental health, juvenile justice, youth service agencies and related professionals to identify risk factors, prevention strategies and management options for potential violent behavior among children and teens.
|
Workshop Content:
• Youth violence, examining research and best practice prescriptive recommendations for assessment and management
• Dynamics and risk factors for reactive aggression, bullying behavior and targeted violence within in K-12 schools
• The use of preventive behavioral threat assessment, equity, inclusion, restorative practice and trauma informed care to decrease expulsions, arrests and dismantle the school to prison pipeline
• The application of the research and best practice recommendations into twenty essential assessment questions
• An examination of bias and how to avoid it through collaborative assessment and training
• A review of a two-tiered, preventive behavioral threat assessment process—school-site based (level 1) and community-based (level 2) which provides support and resources to each school’s Level 1 team—as exemplified by the Salem-Keizer Cascade Model
• Local and regional implementation resources and implementation issues within each school district and community
• Case study exercises as example of application
Workshop Objectives:
• Describe preventive behavioral threat assessment and management system for K-12 schools
• Identify the tools necessary to refine an existing violence prevention system and/or begin implementation of a new system
• List the best practice recommendations and risk factors for assessment and management
• Describe the assessment process that examines the dynamics and risk factors for reactive aggression, bullying behavior, and targeted violence within in K-12 schools
• Identify the components of preventive behavioral threat assessment, equity, inclusion, restorative practice, and trauma informed care to decrease expulsions, arrests, and dismantle the school to prison pipeline
• Show an awareness of bias and how to avoid it through collaborative assessment and training
• Have functional understanding of a two-tiered, preventive behavioral threat assessment process—school-site based (level 1) and community-based (level 2)
|
Presented by
John Van Dreal, MEd. EdS
 John Van Dreal has over 35 years of experience in threat assessment and management, crisis and behavioral intervention, and security/risk management systems consultation. He is a school psychologist and the retired director of Safety and Risk Management Services for the Salem-Keizer School District. He now consults with school districts and communities on behavioral threat assessment systems and operational security.
He began the development and implementation of the Salem-Keizer Cascade Model in 1999. Through that collaboration, he has worked with educators, law enforcement, trial court personnel, juvenile justice, and mental health personnel in preventive behavioral threat assessment—the management of youth threats of aggression within the schools, institutions and community. He chaired Oregon’s Mid-Valley Student Threat Assessment Team from its inception in 2000 through 2015 and has served as a member of the Marion County Threat Advisory Team since 1999.
He is the editor and principal author of Assessing Student Threats: Implementing The Salem-Keizer System, Second Edition. His most recent book (authored with Courtenay McCarthy and Coleen Van Dreal), Preventing Youth Violence: The Pathway Back through Inclusion and Connection, was released in March of 2022. He regularly provides training and consultation to national audiences on threat assessment systems, preventing and mitigating youth violence, school security and response options for violent intruder and active shooter situations.
|
