The University of Findlay's All Hazards Training Center is ready to get school districts in compliance with the new school safety rules. Recently Governor DeWine signed the "SAVE Students" bill into law, requiring schools with students in grades 6th through high school to create a threat assessment team and undergo training at places like the All Hazards Training Center. Instructors say that after taking the course, participants will not only have the background knowledge of threat assessment but how to implement their school's plan if a student shows signs of mental issues and how to address them.
“It is not necessarily about the school shooter,” says Scott Lowry, School Safety Expert at the All Hazards Training Center. “Obviously, it is intended to prevent that from happening. But when we look at students in schools, they have a lot of issues going on and it may not be to the level of school violence. But they need some sort of help and this process, we educate them on the philosophy of and subsequentially how to implement this process.”
While the law is for middle and high schools, the training can be implemented to employees at any level of education. The six-hour course will give the teachers and staff knowledge to be proactive in their school district.
“There are a lot of schools that have never done a threat assessment before, so we educate them on what that is like in the real world,” adds Lowry. “Finally run them through a few exercises that we have embedded in the curriculum that allow them to test that process out. Our goal at the end of this training is that the very next day that team could successfully conduct an assessment on a student.”
If you would like more information about how you can get your school threat assessment team trained and to get them signed up for training, log on to www.findlayallhazards.com.
