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Post by Lurkingpea on Mar 14, 2024 16:20:50 GMT
What is your school's policy if a child threatens or discusses harming another student?
I am job sharing this year due to an abnormally low number of kids in an upper grade. We have a student who has said vague things in my hearing that concern me, but last week mentioned he wants to set another student's house on fire. My coteacher overheard him earlier this week say he wanted to go the students house and find where he slept and cut the other student's head off. He also deliberately breaks things that belong to this student. The kids are supposedly friends and play together all the time. Both at school and on playdates.
We have talked to the school counselor and the parents. But in my opinion that isn't enough. Parents blame it on his ADD. They are truly lovely people. Kind, caring and give the appearance of being good parents. They have another child who is in Kindergarten and seems to be a dream student with excellent social skills. I have seen the mother interact with her son and she says and does all the things you would expect of an attentive parent.
How would your school handle a situation like this?
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Post by iamkristinl16 on Mar 14, 2024 16:45:22 GMT
This seems like a good time to follow the mandated reporting guidelines.
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Post by Merge on Mar 14, 2024 17:38:59 GMT
I’ve seen this a few times in my career. At my last school, we had a kid make a “kill list” that included teachers and students. The school’s response was to have the counselor talk with him, and they they let him continue in class as usual. Not the right response IMO.
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Post by iamkristinl16 on Mar 14, 2024 18:07:53 GMT
I’ve seen this a few times in my career. At my last school, we had a kid make a “kill list” that included teachers and students. The school’s response was to have the counselor talk with him, and they they let him continue in class as usual. Not the right response IMO. Do teachers have to follow duty to warn policies? If not, it seems like they should. |
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pilcas
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,913 
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Post by pilcas on Mar 14, 2024 18:08:25 GMT
I think the parents of the proposed victim should know this, specially if they also interact outside of school.
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Post by Merge on Mar 14, 2024 19:41:19 GMT
I’ve seen this a few times in my career. At my last school, we had a kid make a “kill list” that included teachers and students. The school’s response was to have the counselor talk with him, and they they let him continue in class as usual. Not the right response IMO. Do teachers have to follow duty to warn policies? If not, it seems like they should. I’ve never heard of that. We are mandated reporters and this kid was already in that system. |
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Post by iamkristinl16 on Mar 14, 2024 19:57:01 GMT
Do teachers have to follow duty to warn policies? If not, it seems like they should. I’ve never heard of that. We are mandated reporters and this kid was already in that system. Is your mandated reporter system only within the school? Not to other authorities? Mental health professionals have a duty to warn the other party if there is a threat to their safety. |
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Post by Merge on Mar 14, 2024 20:18:07 GMT
I’ve never heard of that. We are mandated reporters and this kid was already in that system. Is your mandated reporter system only within the school? Not to other authorities? Mental health professionals have a duty to warn the other party if there is a threat to their safety. We are mandated to report to cps if we suspect child abuse. |
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pinklady
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,514
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Post by pinklady on Mar 14, 2024 20:22:35 GMT
What is your school's policy if a child threatens or discusses harming another student? I am job sharing this year due to an abnormally low number of kids in an upper grade. We have a student who has said vague things in my hearing that concern me, but last week mentioned he wants to set another student's house on fire. My coteacher overheard him earlier this week say he wanted to go the students house and find where he slept and cut the other student's head off. He also deliberately breaks things that belong to this student. The kids are supposedly friends and play together all the time. Both at school and on playdates. We have talked to the school counselor and the parents. But in my opinion that isn't enough. Parents blame it on his ADD. They are truly lovely people. Kind, caring and give the appearance of being good parents. They have another child who is in Kindergarten and seems to be a dream student with excellent social skills. I have seen the mother interact with her son and she says and does all the things you would expect of an attentive parent. How would your school handle a situation like this? Not a teacher but in today's climate, I would alert the police whether that was against school policy or not. Those are serious comments, threats, thoughts, or whatever you want to call them. |
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Post by iamkristinl16 on Mar 14, 2024 20:33:48 GMT
Is your mandated reporter system only within the school? Not to other authorities? Mental health professionals have a duty to warn the other party if there is a threat to their safety. We are mandated to report to cps if we suspect child abuse. I thought all mandated reporters had the duty to warn but it sounds like that isn’t the case. I’m really surprised by that. I would be pretty mad if a student was making those threats against my child and family and the school didn’t alert me. |
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CeeScraps
Pearl Clutcher
~~occupied entertaining my brain~~
Posts: 3,825
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Post by CeeScraps on Mar 14, 2024 22:48:15 GMT
I think you should call the non-emergency police number and explain what is going on.
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SabrinaP
Pearl Clutcher
Busy Teacher Pea
Posts: 4,350
Location: Dallas Texas
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Post by SabrinaP on Mar 14, 2024 23:00:00 GMT
We do a threat assessment. Basically admin talks to the kid to try to figure out how valid the threat is and then go from there.
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Post by Merge on Mar 15, 2024 0:15:32 GMT
We are mandated to report to cps if we suspect child abuse. I thought all mandated reporters had the duty to warn but it sounds like that isn’t the case. I’m really surprised by that. I would be pretty mad if a student was making those threats against my child and family and the school didn’t alert me. I don’t disagree with you. But I’ve got my hands full with a lot of the other things wrong with our education system, so maybe you could take this one on. |
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Post by iamkristinl16 on Mar 15, 2024 1:04:13 GMT
I thought all mandated reporters had the duty to warn but it sounds like that isn’t the case. I’m really surprised by that. I would be pretty mad if a student was making those threats against my child and family and the school didn’t alert me. I don’t disagree with you. But I’ve got my hands full with a lot of the other things wrong with our education system, so maybe you could take this one on. I’m not blaming you or saying it’s your responsibility. Just that I’m surprised it’s not already required. |
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Post by Hayjaker on Mar 15, 2024 15:57:53 GMT
In my community we have a risk assessment protocol for these sort of circumstances when there is threat made towards another student, staff, member, or any one involved with the school district.
The school, or whomever hears the threat, initiates a risk assessment. The initial risk assessment is a recording of the threat, conversations with the person who made the threat to understand and evaluate the intent of conversations with her parents or guardian also to make sure and understand if the threat is likely to be follow through with or they are means to follow through with the threat. This stage includes documenting how the person is connected to others in the district, what supports they have available how the concern was communicated to parents to staff members and how the concern was communicated to the person threatened, and what safety measures are currently in place.
if there are any missing pieces in that level of the assessment, it moves forward to a level 2 where a multidisciplinary group convenes to discuss an address any of the missing pieces and next steps. This step creates action items and a timeline to complete the action items.
I can’t remember what a three level three exactly does, but it is when the risk is elevated.
The goal is to create layers of support, and for there to be a more objective assessment of risk and to share liability for decision making. The multidisciplinary team includes representatives from our juvenile justice system, child welfare, the community mental health program, substance abuse providers, parent advocacy groups, the school district involved (ther are 13 districts in my county), our educational service district; really it’s a team of professionals from child serving agencies in the community.
This process convenes very quickly, and there are memorandums of understanding with agencies regarding participation in this process that allow for a quick response. There is a strong commitment to school safety here as our community experienced a mass shooting in 2015. The overarching goal is so that things are not missed along the way, and a young person who is having challenges can be connected with supports to hopefully bypass a more serious incident.
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craftymom101
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,622
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Post by craftymom101 on Mar 15, 2024 18:31:29 GMT
This seems like a good time to follow the mandated reporting guidelines. 100% this. |
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Post by freecharlie on Mar 15, 2024 23:04:42 GMT
Threat assessment to determine the credibility of the threat
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Post by Lurkingpea on Mar 16, 2024 0:02:57 GMT
Threat assessment to determine the credibility of the threat That is what I think, but I am having to fight for it. |
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Post by 950nancy on Mar 16, 2024 0:07:07 GMT
I would definitely let both parents know, my admin, and a counselor. Now that there are armed people in the building, they would know too.
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