Today school is different than what it used to be but parents still expect to feel safe sending their kids to school just like they did when schools first opened. But right now with school shootings and other dangerous things happening at schools parents are scared to send their kids to school and thus the schools have to find a way to not only make the parents feel safe but for the kids to be safe. Threat Assessment is something that the school can use to prepare for a threat and to know how to act when there is a threat.

On the side of preparation, the school looks at if there was a threat the previous year and if anything came about. The next thing that the school does is look at other schools that didn’t do so well and see what they can do better than that school. The schools first start with the layout of the school to make sure that there are no easy access points for someone to get to the kids. For schools that didn’t have large fences or gates before that means that they have to add that in order to make sure that anyone would have to come through the front gate to get in the school.

The next thing that the school does is look at what the kids are allowed to bring to school as it could be one of their classmates causing the threat. Some schools have added metal detectors and bag screening for those that come into the school to cut down on the risk of a threat. But other schools that have not done that have eliminated backpacks or places for the kids to hid something altogether.

But the schools know that it is not enough that statistically it is a student that causes the threat and thus the staff are trained to watch for bullying or students that block themselves from the rest of the kids at the school as it could be a sign of something going on with the kid that needs to be addressed.

But the school also knows and has to accept the fact that there is only so much that they can do in order to prevent an incident and at the same time they must be prepared for if an incident did ever happen at the school. The threat assessment plan then goes into an action mode where the school makes sure that there is an officer at the school that could respond right away and tries to intercept the threat. The next thing that schools are doing is making it where during code reds no one is allowed in or out of the classroom and that the kids are trained to be quite and act as if the room is empty in a situation like that.

The point of making the class look empty is to deter the person from trying to come into the room because there is no point if there is no one in the room, to begin with. The last thing that the school does is train the teachers to know what to do if they encounter someone that is trying to hurt them or the students in order to stall the person and make the situation better until the person can be intercepted. The students are also aware of how to behave in a bad situation but of course, the schools hope that it never comes to that.