From the Training:
Assess & Progress: Spotting and Stopping the School Shooter

A threat assessment is not a counseling session.

This can be a difficult concept for loving, caring people.
You want to help. It’s why you’re an educator. 

But a threat assessment has a very specific purpose.
Determine, as quickly and accurately as possible, the level of threat and risk.

That doesn’t mean you can’t help a student while you’re interviewing and interacting with them. You should. Improving a young life should always be part of what you do, regardless of what you’re doing, but sometimes it’s not the first thing you do.

That’s tough to hear and feels so counterintuitive.

The reason threat and risk must come first is because this information drives everything else that you do. Your immediate lifesaving actions. Your intervention plan. Your management strategy.

Every decision that follows is shaped by your initial threat and risk findings.

If you get that first part wrong, everything that follows is built on a bad foundation. And that’s where schools get into trouble.

They shift too quickly into helping mode. They start trying to fix, comfort, or counsel before they’ve clearly identified the level of threat and risk. 

And while that instinct is beautiful, the timing is off.

Your job first is to establish facts, gain insight, and determine intent, capability, and motive—if one exists. Then stabilize the situation, protect the school community, and put the right interventions in place. 

Growth comes next. 

Counseling absolutely plays a role and it should be a significant one, but it is not the starting point. 

There’s also a practical reality we have to acknowledge. 

Most of the students you’re working with on a threat assessment are not quick fixes. What you’re seeing didn’t start that day. It didn’t start last week. In many cases, it’s been building for months or even years. Which means you’re not going to solve it in one conversation. 

So take the pressure off. 

You don’t have to fix everything in that moment. 

Right now, focus on gaining the information you need to take the next right step. 

It may not feel intuitive, but it is the most effective way to set yourself up for success. This is no different than the oxygen mask on an airplane. You secure it on yourself first so you can help others effectively. 

The military has a very similar philosophy and that’s self-aid first, then buddy aid. 

Same principle here and while it’s easy to say, it can be hard to do. 

Determine the threat and risk level.
Initiate lifesaving steps (from that decision).
Then help the student. 

In that order.