ASHLAND — Targeted violence in schools is rare. But, there’s still importance in understanding threats in order to prevent attacks from happening, said Jeffrey McGarry.
McGarry works as a supervisory social science research specialist with the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center.
He came to Ashland to present on “Safety Using a Threat Assessment Model: An Operational Guide for Preventing Targeted School Violence.”
Often, the response to school attacks is ramping up security measures, McGarry continued.
But, many people who commit acts of violence in schools are “insiders” — either current or former students — who have knowledge about those security protocols.
Instead, McGarry told a crowd of 35 at the Ashland Theatre on Tuesday morning, it’s critical for school personnel and community members to act preventatively when it comes to school violence.
“We need people to trust their instincts and come forward with information,” McGarry said.
His presentation mainly focused on Secret Service research on school violence.
He shared about common factors that contributed to students committing violence; thwarted plots; and what could be learned from those incidents.
Major takeaways
McGarry spoke for nearly four hours Tuesday morning, presenting about multiple reports. One focused on 41 attacks and the motives behind them and another on tragedies that were averted. He also shared steps for schools to complete a behavioral threat assessment.
Across all the presentations, McGarry emphasized that there isn’t one type of school that’s most likely to be the subject of an attack.
It happens everywhere. Urban, suburban and rural schools have all seen targeted violence in the last 25 years.
He also said that a specific profile for students who commit targeted violence doesn’t exist. Sometimes, students who would never be suspected of violent behavior can be the ones who commit those acts.
Many are motivated by grievances, while suicidality is a strong secondary motive. McGarry said it’s actually rare that mental illness acts as a nexus to commit school violence.
He said prevention is critical, and it’s important to watch for warning signs. Paying attention to those signs, he said, must take place at school, at home, by peers and more. It’s a community-wide effort to prevent such attacks, he said.
Mainly, he said, schools should pay attention to uncommon behaviors in the context of how a student typically acts.
Things like sudden interest in weapons, struggles in a student’s home life and communications can all be warning signs.
Creating and promoting safe school climates, providing trainings for all stakeholders, establishing clear investigative procedures and having a central reporting system for bystander use are all critical pieces for schools to consider when completing behavioral threat assessments, McGarry said.
Why now?
The push to bring McGarry to Ashland came from a threat assessment committee at Ashland County-West Holmes Career Center.
T.J. Houston, a cybersecurity instructor at the career center, helped organize Tuesday’s event. Houston said the career center completed a threat assessment for its building earlier this year, but wanted to do more to educate themselves and the career center’s feeder schools on threats.
The 35 attendees on Tuesday included local representatives from the Ashland Police Department, Ashland City Schools, Ashland University and the Ashland County Sheriff’s Office.
Law enforcement from Richland County and Holmes County also had representatives in attendance.
“By bringing the community and region together, we now have a common language,” Houston said.
Responses
Kurt Schneider, who recently won Ashland County’s Republican primary for sheriff and is primed to serve in that position starting next year, said that while Ashland is a strong and tight-knit community, maintaining safety requires planning.
That’s why he attended Tuesday’s event.
Schneider said the county has a high allocation of school resource officers. Still, Schneider said the process of ensuring school safety is “never ending.”
“The collaboration between school and community should never stop,” Schneider said.
For Houston, McGarry’s presentation gave new relevance to positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS).
The state’s Future Forward Ohio plan incorporates PBIS as a way to help achieve pandemic recovery. It’s also something the career center has put into practice, Houston said.
Positive Behavioral Interventions and supports Coverage
In one presentation, McGarry shared that sometimes punishing students with disciplinary action (like out-of-school suspensions) can give them unsupervised time to explore troublesome topics. It also takes away adequate supports for them to navigate their behaviors.
“We don’t have a wealth of disciplinary tools at our disposal, but this was an ‘Aha!’ moment that putting kids out of school means they don’t have support,” Houston said.
Houston said he now understands the “why” behind the push to reward positive behaviors, as opposed to punishing negative ones.
He added that if the event can save one life, or thwart one plot, he would count it as a success.
The Safer Ohio School Tip Line serves as a free safety resource for all Ohio schools. You can call the Tip Line, text it, fill out a webform or download the app.
For more information, or to make a report, visit the Safer Ohio School Tip Line website here: https://ohioschoolsafetycenter.ohio.gov/pre-k-12-schools/safer-ohio-school-tip-line.
