The following policies should be reviewed by all parents/guardians and students
Violence and Threat Assessment
The Langley School District has policies around Violence and Threat Assessment. All parents and students should be aware of these.
High-Risk Behaviours (Violence Potential)
The high-risk behaviours addressed in this protocol include but are not limited to:
- Verbal, written, or gestural threats to kill or cause grievous bodily harm
- Internet website threats to kill or cause grievous bodily harm
- Possession of weapons (including replicas)
- Bomb threats
- Fire setting at school
- Group related intimidation and violence
- Sexual intimidation or assault
Fair Notice
The School Community will be informed of the School District’s response to threat making behaviour. All students, parents and staff will be made aware of their obligation to report any threat making behaviour to school staff. Click below for Fair Notice poster:
Threat Assessment
Threat assessment is the process of determining if a threat maker (someone who utters, writes, emails, etc., a threat to kill or cause harm to a target or targets) actually poses a risk.
Many students, and others, engage in threat-making behaviour but research indicates that few pose a risk of harm to the target they have threatened. Multi-disciplinary threat assessment teams engage in a data collection process, through structured interviews, to determine “initial levels of risk” that may be posed and plan necessary risk-reducing interventions. Although a student of concern may be assessed as low risk there may be data that indicates a more comprehensive risk assessment is required.
School Threat Assessment Team
Each school will have a Threat Assessment Team (TAT). Membership will include the Principal (TAT Leader), Vice-Principal, School Counsellor and Police Liaison Officer. VTRA procedures will be reviewed annually. Training is based on Kevin Cameron’s model from the Canadian Centre for Threat Assessment and Trauma Response.
District Threat Assessment Team
The District TAT is composed of:
- The Assistant Superintendent of Schools
- District Principal for Safe Schools
- District Director of Health & Safety
- One Elementary Principal
- One Secondary Principal
This group can be expanded to include representatives from the MCFD, Child and Youth Mental help and the RCMP.