Google it: A component analysis of free online violent threat assessment tools for schools

Although school-based youth homicides and student fear of attack or harm at school have slowly decreased over the past two decades (Musu-Gillette et al., 2018), students are not free from worry; violence is still present in schools. School violence refers to acts of physical force, harm, or power that occur on school grounds or at school events (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2017; World Health Organization, 2002). School violence is manifested over a vast continuum, encompassing incidents ranging from bullying and physical fighting to weapon use, bombings, and mass attacks among students (CDC, 2017). While bullying and fighting are much more likely to occur in schools, the nation at large appears to demonstrate greater concern and worry for more unlikely events, such as school shootings (Juvonen, 2001). Because of the mounting evidence related to wide-reaching effects of school violence (Crawford & Burns, 2016; Peguero, Connell, & Hong, 2016), threat assessment efforts to identify serious threats and prevent unnecessary harm are more needed than ever. Educational agencies that are underfunded, lack needed training, and may be geographically isolated, like rural schools, may turn to the internet for free or low-cost resources to retrieve the information and materials that they need to keep students and communities safe. The present study compares extant open-access violence threat assessment measures to Cornell’s (2018a) Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG) to examine the relative quality of existing resources that are available online for rural and underserved school districts.