{"id":21164,"date":"2021-04-07T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-07T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lightspeedsystems.com\/blog\/comprehensive-school-threat-assessment-guidelines\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T12:05:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T16:05:12","slug":"comprehensive-school-threat-assessment-guidelines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lightspeedsystems.com\/ja\/blog\/comprehensive-school-threat-assessment-guidelines\/","title":{"rendered":"\u5305\u62ec\u7684\u306a\u5b66\u6821\u8105\u5a01\u8a55\u4fa1\u30ac\u30a4\u30c9\u30e9\u30a4\u30f3 (CSTAG) \u3092\u5b9f\u65bd\u3059\u308b\u305f\u3081\u306e 5 \u3064\u306e\u30b9\u30c6\u30c3\u30d7"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Comprehensive School Threat Assessment<\/h2>\n

American schools face an epidemic of violence by and against their students. A 2019 government study found that 7% of high school students reported being threatened or injured with a weapon<\/a>. In the same year, 5% of students aged 12-18 reported that they had feared bodily harm while at school<\/a>. It is therefore unsurprising that, over the year, nearly half of America\u2019s schools reported to the police an incident of student harm.<\/p>\n

With the pandemic exacerbating the existing student mental health crisis<\/a>, it is more urgent than ever that schools ensure they are prepared to identify\u2014and mitigate\u2014threats to student safety before harm occurs. To help schools do so effectively, Lightspeed Systems\u00ae invited Professor Dewey Cornell, Director of the Youth Violence Project at the University of Virginia, to discuss his revolutionary approach to student threat assessment: the Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The history of threat assessments<\/h3>\n

In the wake of the Columbine massacre, the FBI investigated school shootings in the hopes of discovering what seemingly unrelated incidents had in common. What the agency found was that students who engaged in violence did so only after months of troubled behavior<\/strong>\u2014and, crucially, that the students manifested similar behaviors before hurting others.<\/p>\n

This finding implied that certain behaviors could be correlated with violence. Therefore, schools that could detect those behaviors in a student could intervene before harm occurred. As the agency worked with schools to identify these behaviors, they were determined to avoid overreacting and underreacting to the threats they perceived.<\/p>\n

While the risk posed by underreacting is obvious, the risk from overreacting was less apparent but, according to Dr. Cornell, no less real. He related the story of a young student who nibbled his Poptart into the shape of a pistol and, after brandishing it at other students, found himself suspended. \u201cThis boy did not pose a serious risk of violence,\u201d Dr. Cornell said, \u201cbut suspension can have a really devastating impact on a young person\u2019s education.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the more reason, he explained, to ensure schools are accurate in their threat assessments.<\/p>\n

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How CSTAG helps schools protect students<\/h3>\n

In 2001, Dr. Cornell worked in concert with the FBI to turn their investigation into school shootings into the Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG). After field testing this threat assessment system in 35 schools, Dr. Cornell and his colleagues developed a decision tree to distinguish transient threats from substantive threats\u2014and then to also issue guidance to districts on how best to intervene.<\/p>\n

The core of CSTAG is a five-step process that school-based student threat assessment teams perform upon flagging a potential threat.<\/p>\n

Step 1: Evaluate the threat.<\/strong> Team members gather as much information about the threat as possible, including the nature of the threat, the student\u2019s history, and the context in which the threat emerged.<\/p>\n

Step 2: Attempt resolution of a transient threat.<\/strong> The team follows a decision-tree to determine separate transient threats from substantive ones. If transient, the team sits down with the students involved to discuss and resolve the threat.<\/p>\n

Step 3: Intervene in a substantive threat.<\/strong> At this stage, the team considers threats in which the student is demonstrating real intent. The district then intervenes, often in the form of counseling or conflict mediation.<\/p>\n

Step 4: Conduct a thorough safety evaluation.<\/strong> At this stage, the teams are engaging threats they deem very serious substantive threats. Schools may now intervene by suspending students pending a mental health screening and possibly engaging law enforcement. The threat assessment team will also develop a safety plan that reduces risk and addresses student needs.<\/p>\n

Step 5: Implement and monitor the safety plan.<\/strong> The team implements the safety plan developed at earlier steps in the process. The district monitors the student and works to improve the situation underlying the original threat.<\/p>\n

CSTAG training, which is available nationwide (including online at www.schoolta.com<\/a>), is fast becoming the national standard in threat assessment. Districts across the country\u2014including every district in Florida\u2014are using the CSTAG method, and more districts are adopting it all the time.<\/p>\n

Why? Because the model works. Look at the stats from districts that have implemented CSTAG. Administrators have found that:<\/p>\n

\"Graph <\/picture><\/figure>\n