NORTON SHORES, Mich. — FOX 17 has spent considerable time looking into different West Michigan school districts' threat assessment policies.
Threat assessment policies differ depending on the district, but all essentially have the same goal: to assess student behavior and red flags that may result in targeted violence.
From school systems in Ottawa County, like Coopersville Area Public Schools, to Mona Shores Public Schools in Muskegon County: it's a frightening reality every administrator is forced to confront daily.
Administrators, like Bill O'Brien, say no one wants to repeat history. That's why his district and the Norton Shores Police Department worked extensively to create a threat assessment policy for every district in Muskegon County's Intermediate School District to use.
The blueprint for "what to do" if a child acts out, or makes a school threat, contains both local and national resources, including the National Threat Assessment Center and Secret Service's recommendations.
How the blueprint is implemented is up to the school's administrators.
“There’s so much good, that can come out of that local autonomy,” Superintendent Bill O'Brien said.
The best part, for O'Brien, in Mona Shores Public Schools, is the continuing ability to adapt and change threat assessments, without needing to make changes a matter of school board policy.
O'Brien likens it to if a student is struggling in math, they're expected to come up with an educational plan for the struggling student. The same goes for a child's emotional well-being, which is tied to threat assessments by their very nature: confronting students exhibiting concerning behavior, assessing access to weapons, and doing it in a dynamic way.
“We don’t put things into policy that get updated frequently,” O'Brien said.
O'Brien says if your child's school district doesn't have a threat assessment policy listed in their Board of Education policy, don't assume the district doesn't have one. It may be that the district is doing what Mona Shores is: creating a threat assessment that can continually be updated— in a different way. O'Brien says what works for each district varies.
The most important thing parents can do is ask questions about threat assessment. Safety at school is top of mind for every parent, and educator alike.
“I have two children, in Mona Shores Public Schools— we’re not going to put them inside this building— if it’s not safe,” O'Brien said.
Mona Shores provided this document to FOX 17, which is the Muskegon Area ISD's threat assessment policy— what is utilized in Mona Shores:
Copy of 2022 Muskegon Violence Risk Assessment Final by WXMI on Scribd
