After Georgia Shooting, Should Schools Be Required to Have Threat Assessment Teams?
Yes, and we should curb youth access to guns, says BU’s Jennifer Greif Green
Colt Gray, a 14-year-old, will be tried as an adult for allegedly killing two fellow students and two teachers with a gun at Apalachee High School on September 4, 2024, in Winder, Ga. Photo via AP/Jeff Amy
After Georgia Shooting, Should Schools Be Required to Have Threat Assessment Teams?
Yes, and we should curb youth access to guns, says BU’s Jennifer Greif Green
The lethal shootings of four people at a Georgia high school last week led to charges against the 14-year-old alleged killer and his father. It also has some analysts wondering if mandatory threat assessment teams in schools might avert such tragedies.
Colt Gray is charged with killing two fellow students and two teachers September 4 at Apalachee High School, where he was a freshman. Eight other students and a teacher were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. Police say Colt Gray, who will be tried as an adult, used an “AR-platform-style weapon” that was a Christmas gift from his father, despite a visit by sheriff’s deputies to the family home last year. That visit was prompted by a charge, denied by Colt Gray, that he’d posted an online threat to commit a school shooting. His father, Colin Gray, faces second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter charges.
Politicians proffered dueling diagnoses of gun violence. Republican vice presidential nominee J. D. Vance said that he is working with Senate colleagues on legislation to “give schools more resources to bolster security.” Alternatively, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has called for red flag laws, universal background checks, and prohibiting sales of assault weapons to civilians.
Currently, nine states—neither Georgia nor Massachusetts among them—require schools to have threat assessment teams. These can include educators, police, and community members who identify potentially violent students and channel them to help. Many experts support this approach. Pessimists’ stance was summarized by The Atlantic: “It’s impossible to ensure that every dangerous child will be reached. And, in the end, there’s not much that anyone can do to stop a determined shooter, aside from preventing him from getting a gun in the first place.”
BU Today asked child clinical psychologist Jennifer Greif Green, a professor of special education at BU’s Wheelock College of Education & Human Development, for her take. She is affiliated with the federally funded Network for Enhancing Wellness in Disaster-Affected Youth, a consortium of experts, she says, that “provides free professional trainings, education, and technical assistance in evidence-based responses to disasters, including mass shootings, for youth.” BU affiliates can schedule a training by contacting Green or visiting the group’s website.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q&A
Jennifer Greif Green
BU Today: Massachusetts doesn’t mandate schools to have threat assessment teams. Should it?
Green: The short answer is yes. Research has shown that school threat assessment teams can effectively resolve threats in schools and increase the likelihood that students will receive supportive responses—for example, counseling services. Much of this research has been led by Dr. Dewey Cornell at the University of Virginia, who developed the Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG).
The longer answer is that how states implement these mandates has a big impact on whether they will be effective. Even in states that require schools to establish threat assessment teams, there is variability in how districts and schools approach these mandates, and the extent to which states have made funding and other resources available. Schools and districts vary in how they construct threat assessment teams—for example, only some use evidence-based models like the CSTAG.
There are also challenges with data collection to monitor threat assessment teams. For example, if a school doesn’t report conducting any threat assessments in a given year, it’s hard to know if that is because there were actually no threats made, or perhaps because no adults were made aware of threats, or if the threats were brought to the attention of adults, but not effectively referred to the team.
BU Today: Is there research, or at least anecdotal evidence, suggesting that assessment teams in schools can prevent gun violence?
Green: Although researchers have found that threat assessment teams can effectively resolve large and small threats, the number of fatal shootings in US schools is so small that it’s a difficult question to answer.
BU Today: What strategies besides (or instead of) assessment teams would be most effective in preventing shootings?
Green: Reducing access to weapons, especially assault-style firearms, is most important for preventing mass shootings in schools. Ensuring that underage youth don’t have access to guns is one of the most effective ways to reduce both shootings and youth suicide—also a leading cause of death for children and teens.
In 2022, a group of school violence prevention researchers put out a policy statement on preventing gun violence, where they provide eight science-backed calls for reform. This document highlights the need for comprehensive prevention planning in schools and communities—that is, both preventative and also responsive to the most imminent threats, e.g., through a threat assessment.
BU Today: Is The Atlantic correct in alleging “the futility” of preventing school shootings?
Green: These events are just so incredibly awful, but I remain hopeful that because we know what steps are needed, we can press our leaders to make those changes.
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