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 **Lessons Learned from Studying Averted/Completed Acts of Mass Violence in Schools** August 2019 | Volume 12 | Issue 7
  The Police Foundation—a national non-profit, non-partisan  organization dedicated to improving policing through innovation and science—initiated  a project, with funding from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community  Oriented Policing Services, to study “averted acts of school violence.” The project  is based on the concept of the “near miss,” which has been used to inform  business practices in the aviation, fire, and medical professions. The near  miss concept holds that for every incident that occurs, there are significantly  more averted incidents. These averted incidents contain invaluable information regarding  the strengths or potential weaknesses of policies, procedures, training, and practices. The Police Foundation has built a national averted school violence database.  This database collects and analyzes data regarding averted incidents to  identify best, and more importantly, “next” practices to prevent and respond to  acts of mass violence on our campuses. Definition of Averted School  Violence The Police Foundation defines an averted school violence  incident as a violent attack, planned with or without the use of a firearm,  that was prevented either before or after the potential perpetrator arrived on  school grounds, before any injury or loss of life occurred. What Are Some of the Lessons  We Have Learned? Police Foundation subject matter experts have reviewed incident  reports of 51 averted and 51completed attacks recorded in the averted school  violence database. Averted and completed incidents were identified from open  source news stories, court documents, and individuals who had personal  knowledge of the incidents. To date, the team has identified the following lessons learned: Schools and law enforcement must have a strong,  pre-established relationship and open lines of communication before an attack  occurs.
          Students who hear threats of violence from other  students should take them seriously and report them to school or other  authorities immediately. In over half of the incidents we studied, students  were the first to discover another student’s plans for school violence (see Figure  1).*Figure 1: Who discovered the plot?*
          Students should be trained not only to recognize  threats of violence, but also to recognize signs of suicide or depression.
          Parents should monitor their children’s social  media accounts for any concerning searches or violent material and remain aware  of their general Internet use.
          Potential perpetrators of violence frequently  make direct threats or openly discuss their violent plans with others. In some  instances, they use social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and  even Snapchat to share violent plans or thoughts, or to express disdain for a  school or situation (see Figure 2).*Figure 2. How was the school violence plot discovered?*
          Parents should take their children’s threats of  violence seriously and seek assistance from law enforcement, mental health  professionals, and other service providers.
          Parents should keep all guns in a locked and  secure location.
          School personnel, school resource officers, and campus  police and security officers should strive to develop and maintain rapport with  students so they are aware of students who are bullied, feel excluded,  depressed, or challenged in other ways so they can connect them to services.
          Schools must continuously update and practice  their emergency communication systems and response plans.
          Schools should have a plan in place for timely  communication of incidents to parents.
          Schools, particularly universities and higher  education, should be aware that financial distress can be a trigger for  violence.
          Schools should notify all staff when a student  is suspended or expelled. That student should not be allowed back on campus the  same day of the suspension or expulsion.
          Schools should direct concerns through a “safety  team” for review and to design an appropriate course of action.
          Schools must be vigilant at entrance locations  and have sufficient staff to process and observe individuals entering the  school. Benefits of Submitting and  Viewing ASV Reports By submitting and reviewing ASV reports, you can improve  school safety in your district or on your college campus as well as help other  school safety professionals across the country to improve safety. The database  has a number of specific benefits both to the report submitters, and to the  individuals who review the report library. Averted and carried out school attacks can provide insights  into the effectiveness of existing school and campus safety efforts nationwide.  The ASV incident report library contains valuable  information related to school security, averted attackers, successful discovery  and prevention of attacks, lessons learned, and recommendations. ASV incident reports can help prevent future violence when  lessons are learned and recommendations inform the policies, procedures,  practices, and training of those who are engaged in school and campus safety. ASV  reporting is anonymous, and submitted reports are additionally scrubbed to  remove any identifying information about the school, perpetrator, or report  submitter. ASV Reporting Process The online incident report form is broken into various categories.  The main categories contain questions related to basic school information and  security, information about the averted or carried out attack, information  about the perpetrator or potential perpetrator, and a section to identify  lessons learned from how the incident was handled. While we encourage report submitters to answer as many  questions as possible to allow for the most robust data collection and  analysis, all questions in the form are optional. If report submitters do not  feel comfortable providing incident data, we still encourage them to complete  the lessons learned and recommendations section. These recommendations and  lessons learned can still play an important role in helping other schools  prevent acts of violence. Lessons learned and recommendations can cover any  aspect of the attack or averted attack—from physical school safety mechanisms,  to safety drills and procedures, to the level of communication that played a  role as the incident was addressed or prevented. Once a form is submitted, school safety subject matter  experts remove identifying information as necessary and provide additional  lessons learned and recommendations. Subject matter experts have backgrounds in  counseling psychology, campus security and law enforcement, risk management,  and threat assessments. Experts have conducted extensive research on averted  and completed attacks. During the review process, the report form is NOT available  on the ASV online platform. The Police Foundation will publish the report in  the report library only after review by subject matter experts and the removal  of identifying information. The online report library is not open to the  public, and those that request access are vetted by the Police Foundation  before access is granted. Reports are searchable and categorized by fields such  as type of school, means of plot discovery, types of weapons acquired by the  perpetrator, date of the attack or planned attack, and more. Conclusion The Averted School Violence database holds great promise in  informing school and college campus safety policies, procedures, training and practices  through a robust library of incidents, lessons learned and best practices. By  carefully analyzing the incidents recorded in the database and the lessons  learned, school resource officers, campus police and security officers, administrators,  teachers, law enforcement, and others can strengthen current programs and  identify next practices to ensure the safety and security of our schools and  college campuses. If you have been involved in an averted act of violence, we  encourage you to complete an incident report form at the Averted School Violence website to  help grow the lessons learned to benefit you, your department, or school. **For more information on the  Averted School Violence project, contact:**
          Frank Straub, Ph.D. 
          Director, National Police Foundation Center for Mass Violence Response Studiesfstraub@policefoundation.org Additional Resources: A  Comparison of Averted and Completed School Attacks from the Police Foundation  Averted School Violence Database A  Preliminary Report on the Police Foundation’s Averted School Violence Database Tweet
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 The Community Policing Dispatch is the e-newsletter of the COPS Office.   The Community Policing Dispatch is the e-newsletter of the COPS Office.
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