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Toolkit: School Violence Prevention and Response Resources

A Parent's Quick Reference Card Recognizing and Preventing Gang Involvement

This quick reference guide provides common warning signs of gang involvement, but may not be all-encompassing. Parents should look for multiple signs to indicate possible gang involvement because some of these indicators alone, such as clothes or musical preferences, are also common among youth not involved in gangs. Parents are encouraged to familiarize themselves with local gang symbols, seek help early, and consider contacting school personnel, local law enforcement, faith leaders, and community organizations for additional assistance.

Addressing Gangs in Our Schools

This bulletin addresses several prevention strategies that schools can use to prevent gangs in their campuses. A few best practices from the field are also presented.

Strategic Approaches to Preventing Multiple Casualty Violence: Report on the National Summit on Multiple Casualty Shootings

The American public has expressed increasing alarm over incidents of multiple casualty violence. While the law enforcement community has progressed in advancing training in the tactical response to incidents, there are significant gaps in strategies aimed at preventing multiple casualty violence. To address this need, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Law Enforcement Training Center collaborated with the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services and the Johns Hopkins University's School of Education, Division of Public Safety Leadership, to facilitate the National Summit on Multiple Casualty Shootings. The summit planners invited subject-matters experts from a wide range of disciplines, such as law enforcement, health care, law, social sciences, education, and academia, to help improve the nation's ability to prevent multiple casualty violence. The participants developed eight recommendations, all centered on the need to create a strategic approach to information sharing in the prevention of multiple casualty violence.


ALERRT Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events Train-the-Trainer

Law enforcement officers and agencies are frequently requested by schools, businesses, and community members for direction and presentations on what they should do if confronted with an active shooter event. The Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events (CRASE) course, designed and built on the Avoid, Deny, Defend (ADD) strategy developed by ALERRT in 2004, provides strategies, guidance, and a proven plan for surviving an active shooter event. Topics include the history and prevalence of active shooter events, civilian response options, medical issues, and considerations for conducting drills. Participants in this four‑hour Train-the-Trainer course will receive a manual and Power Point presentation suitable for use in their own presentations.


ALERRT Medical Advanced Skills Course

ALERRT introduced a new 8 hour Medical Advanced Skills Course (MASC) in 2018/2019 intended to provide medical first responders with best practices for the management of traumatic injured patients to enhance survivability and combat potentially preventable death specifically from active attacker events. Topics will include Pre-Hospital Damage Control Resuscitation (DCR), Compressible and Non-Compressible Bleeding Management, Hypotensive Resuscitation, Hemostatic Resuscitation, Airway Management, Tension Pneumothorax Management, Hypothermia Prevention and Management.


ALERRT Active Shooter Incident Management

This course provides participants an overview of the Incident Command System and its specific application to integrate and manage the law enforcement, fire, and EMS response to Active Shooter Events. The course prepares responders to manage the first hour of response to Active Shooter Events ranging from Basic Complexity to Complex Simultaneous Coordinated Attacks. Hands-on exercises simulate unpredictable Active Shooter Events in real time scenarios that enable learning and practice while improving effectiveness and officer safety as part of the VALOR officer safety initiative.


Beyond the Badge: Profile of a School Resource Officer DVD

In the midst of turmoil and division between law enforcement and the community of Ferguson, Missouri, St. Louis County School Resource Officer Ronald Cockrell works to bridge the gap between students and police officers. Beyond the Badge: Profile of a School Resource Officer follows Officer Cockrell during a school day at Central Middle School in Riverview Gardens, six months after the police shooting and protests that left North St. Louis County reeling. The story focuses on Cockrell's efforts to build relationships, listen to students address fear of the police in a school town hall, mentor young people on how to deal with conflicts, and work with his colleagues to respond and support a student whose father is murdered. This short film is designed to prompt conversations in law enforcement agencies, schools, and communities about the role SROs can play in improving relationships between students and law enforcement and mentoring and supporting young people as they navigate conflicts and interactions with the justice system. This film is part of the Working Together for Safe, Inclusive Communities Initiative, a collaboration between Not In Our Town and the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. This free resource is available for law enforcement agencies to use in their communities.


Combatting Youth Violence in American Cities

In March 2015, mayors were invited to participate in the development of a report that would serve as a tool for mayors, police chiefs, and school administrators throughout the nation who are committed to reducing youth violence in their cities. The mayors were asked to describe the approaches they were taking to reduce the problem, focusing on the kinds of partnerships that were involved and on the specific activities and practices undertaken to prevent or respond to youth violence in schools and neighborhoods. Comments also were sought on the most difficult problems encountered in implementing or maintaining their activities and practices, the keys to the formation of successful partnerships, and measures of the effectiveness of the approaches being described. Combatting Youth Violence in American Cities. This report contains descriptions of approaches taken to combat youth violence submitted by mayors and other officials in 30 cities of varying sizes (the smallest having a population of about 44,000) and representing every region of the country.


School and Campus Crime

Victimizations occurring at school are an important subset of crime, given the amount of time that young people spend there. While schools (K-12) and post- secondary campuses are relatively safe places, victimization does occur, and the risks vary by context. Adolescents, for example, experience more violent victimizations at school but more serious violent victimizations outside of school (see Child, Youth, and Teen Victimization). And national studies suggest that stalking victimization rates are higher among college-age women than the general population. Concerns over reporting and preventing violence against women, in particular rape and sexual assault, have led to greater focus by campus administrators and policy makers. Regardless of age, students who are victimized at school often have their physical and emotional well-being negatively affected, as well as their ability to learn.


Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2014

This report presents the most recent data available on school crime and student safety. The indicators in this report are based on information drawn from a variety of data sources, including national surveys of students, teachers, principals, and postsecondary institutions. Sources include results from the School-Associated Violent Deaths Study, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, the Department of Justice, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); the National Crime Victimization Survey and School Crime Supplement to that survey, sponsored by BJS and NCES, respectively; the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, sponsored by the CDC; the Schools and Staffing Survey and School Survey on Crime and Safety, both sponsored by NCES; the Supplementary Homicide Reports, sponsored by the Federal Bureau of Investigation; EDFacts, sponsored by NCES; and the Campus Safety and Security Survey, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education.


Gang Resistance Education (G.R.E.A.T.) Web site

Gang Resistance Education And Training (G.R.E.A.T.) is an evidence-based and effective gang and violence prevention program built around school-based, law enforcement officer-instructed classroom curricula. The Program is intended as an immunization against delinquency, youth violence, and gang membership for children in the years immediately before the prime ages for introduction into gangs and delinquent behavior.


Building Better Early Intervention Systems

This article features the Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, Police Department's (CMPD's) Early Intervention System (EIS). CMPD and the University of Chicago’s Center for Data Science and Public Policy (DSaPP) joined forces to build a better EIS. CMPD has been a technology leader in the public safety sector, building a centralized data warehouse and much of its own software. DSaPP has expertise in building predictive systems for nonprofits and governments, working with dozens of schools, social service agencies, hospitals, departments of public health, and more.6 Together, the researchers analyzed the performance of CMPD’s current EIS, then used advanced analytics to build a new EIS prototype. The prototype EIS appears to be a great start in changing how CMPD addresses employee issues. Preliminary results suggest the new system increases the odds of flagging officers who will be involved in an adverse incident in the next 12 months. Equally important, it reduces the number of officers who were flagged but did not go on to have an adverse incident in the next year. CMPD and DSaPP are conducting a field trial of this system and building tools to ready it for use.


Police Critical Incident Checklist

This section contains a checklist to prepare police officials for responding to a critical incident that has the potential to result in controversy or conflict involving the police and a community. Because a critical incident typically requires a police department to quickly undertake a wide range of actions, straining the capacity of the department, a checklist can help to ensure that officials consider all potential options ahead of time, and that certain tasks do not “fall through the cracks” during an incident. This checklist is not meant to be a comprehensive list of steps or a rigid timeline for a police response, but rather is intended to serve as a guide to many of the issues that police should consider before, during, and after a critical incident that results in community tension. The immediate response of a police executive can determine how the community will respond to an incident, and can set the tone for the department’s ongoing relationship with the community in the long-term. This checklist emphasizes actions that can help calm tensions and demonstrate good faith to the community.


FBI Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal

The FBI's Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal (LEEP) is a gateway providing law enforcement agencies, intelligence groups, and criminal justice entities access to beneficial resources. These resources will strengthen case development for investigators, enhance information sharing between agencies, and be accessible in one centralized location.


Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans

Lessons learned from school emergencies highlight the importance of preparing school officials and first responders to implement emergency operations plans. By having plans in place to keep students and staff safe, schools play a key role in taking preventative and protective measures to stop an emergency from occurring or reduce the impact of an incident. Although schools are not traditional response organizations, when a school-based emergency occurs, school personnel respond immediately. They provide first aid, notify response partners, and provide instructions before first responders arrive. They also work with their community partners, i.e., governmental organizations that have a responsibility in the school emergency operations plan to provide a cohesive, coordinated response. Families and communities expect schools to keep their children and youths safe from threats (human-caused emergencies such as crime and violence) and hazards (natural disasters, disease outbreaks, and accidents). In collaboration with their local government and community partners, schools can take steps to plan for these potential emergencies through the creation of a school Emergency Operations Plan (school EOP). This document is intended to serve as a guide for the planning teams responsible for developing and revising school EOPs . It is recommended that districts and individual schools compare existing plans and processes against the content and processes outlined in this guide. To gain the most from it, users should read through the entire document prior to initiating their planning efforts...


Active Shooter Quick Reference Guide

In 2014 the Federal Bureau of Investigation initiated a study of active shooter incidents to provide federal, state, local, campus and tribal law enforcement with accurate data to better understand how to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from these incidents.


Violence Prevention in Schools: Enhancement Through Law Enforcement Partnerships

This document provides practical advice gathered from experienced school resource officers on how law enforcement, schools, and districts can work together to keep schools safe.


Making Prevention a Reality: Identifying, Assessing, and Managing the Threat of Targeted Attacks

This guide first addresses some important awareness aspects of the active shooter problem, not the least of which is the term “active shooter.” The content of this publication does not begin and end with active shooters, but instead applies to targeted violence generally. However, it does not specifically address potential acts of terrorism, or threat assessment for violence perpetrated primarily in furtherance of a political, religious, or other extremist cause or ideology. Planned violence, threat assessments, violence and mental health, and barriers to successful prevention efforts are also discussed. The guide then offers specific and actionable information on identifying, assessing, and managing persons who pose a true concern for planned, targeted violence. Guidance about setting up and running a threat management team is offered. Sample tools are provided in the appendices.


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