Much of today’s focus regarding K-12 school safety and security is on emergency response. Various stakeholders, including district leaders, parents, and school boards, want to know if a school is prepared to respond to an incident, particularly those involving violence.

However, prevention should be at the forefront of the rhetoric and school safety plans, and behavioral threat assessments play a pivotal role.

During the pandemic, the United States saw a significant uptick in homicides, shootings, and aggravated assaults. While FBI crime data shows overall violent crime returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2022, the Justice Department’s National Crime Victimization Survey found violent victimization rate for people between the ages of 12 and 17 doubled, representing the age group that saw the biggest increase in violent victimization. The survey also found fatal and non-fatal gun violence increased by more than 10% for those under the age of 18.

Campus Safety spoke with Lew Robinson, a retired U.S. Secret Service who specialized in behavioral threats assessments, and Kirk Cerny, COO of Secure Passage, a public safety company, about what is causing an increase in violent crime among young people and leading practices and resources for addressing the issue.

Additional topics covered include:

• A scenario that highlights the importance of identifying concerning or prohibitive behaviors and initiating the intervention process (4:44)
• Three ways schools can mitigate threats of harm (8:33)
• Common errors schools make regarding behavioral threat assessments (11:49)
• What makes Secure Passage's SBTA unique (20:13)
• Hopeful thoughts for the future of school safety and student wellness (25:08)
• How schools can access fiscal and human resources to improve behavioral threat assessment capabilities (31:32)

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