National Expert On School Shootings Trains Educators, Mental Health and Law Enforcement Professionals On Threat Management Through Morris County Sheriff's Office RSVP-3 Program
Published on November 15, 2019
A nationally-renowned expert on school shootings on Thursday instructed a group of 80 police officers, school administrators and resource officers and mental health professionals in Morris County on how to build an evidence-based program to assess threats to school safety.
Dr. Marisa R. Randazzo, former Chief Research Psychologist for the U.S. Secret Service and managing partner of SIGMA Threat Management Associates.
By terrible coincidence, former United States Secret Service Chief Research Psychologist Dr. Marisa R. Randazzo was training the group as part of the Morris County Sheriff's Office's RSVP-3 Program when shots were fired at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California “ allegedly by a 16-year-old student “ killing two students and wounding at least three others.
RSVP-3, which stands for Responsible School Violence Prevention, Preparation, Protection, was launched in 2018 by Morris County Sheriff James M. Gannon and the Morris County Chiefs of Police Association shortly after the February 14, 2018, school shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
With funding from the Morris County Board of Freeholders and the federal Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI), the Morris County Sheriff's Office in 2018 hired Dr. Randazzo's firm, SIGMA Threat Management Associates, to prepare an evidence-based behavioral threat assessment and management (BTAM) guide on how to identify, assess and manage threatening or seriously-disruptive behaviors in the school setting.
Morris County Sheriff James M. Gannon at RSVP-3 training on November 14, 2019.
Dr. Randazzo, who has helped train about 350 school leaders, resource and police officers and mental health professionals on BTAM in the past year through the RSVP-3 program, spent a full day Thursday instructing the group how to conduct a threat investigation, divert an individual from his or her pathway to violence, and assist in creating school environments where students are free from bullying and feel comfortable confiding in school officials about threatening behavior exhibited by others.
The training occurred at the Morris County Public Safety Training Academy in Parsippany.
Thursday's RSVP-3 training “ ongoing since November 2018 “ also occurred on the heels of last week's release of a U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Targeted School Violence. The Secret Service report, which analyzed 41 incidents of targeted school violence that occurred in schools from 2008 to 2017, contained several conclusions that already are incorporated into the RSVP-3 training program.
The conclusions advised: the attackers in all 41 violent school incidents exhibited concerning behaviors; most, in a concept known as leakage, communicated their intent to attack in some way; and students, school personnel and family members should be urged to report troubling or concerning behaviors.
Participants at RSVP-3 training at the Morris County Public Safety Training Academy.
Dr. Randazzo led the group through the BTAM process which involves identifying a subject whose behavior has caused concern, investigating and gathering relevant information about the subject in an ethical manner, assessing the situation based on the totality of the information, and managing the threat through intervention, supervision, or a monitoring plan designed to prevent further harm and mitigate the situation.
Dr. Randazzo said she believes many school shootings can be prevented, as did Sheriff Gannon, whose RSVP-3 program is multi-pronged to include the BTAM curriculum, an RSVP-3 anonymous tip-reporting app unveiled in October 2019, and tactical training for law enforcement officers. RSVP-3, he said, is enhanced by his creation of a threat and intelligence-gathering unit called Morris County Sheriff's Trends and Analysis Team (MCSTAT).
These incidences are highly preventable through a fairly simple process where you get people to share concerns “ when they see that report on social media, when a teacher sees something in a homework assignment that raises fear or concern about a student's mental health or emotional well-being. Bring that information forth to a threat assessment team, have them take a look, find out what else is going on, Dr. Randazzo said.
If we think that student is on what we call a pathway to violence, we can do some simple things to get them off the pathway to violence and prevent harm, she said.
Sheriff Gannon said the ultimate goals are to avoid tactical responses, and be left of bang by thwarting violent plans before they solidify. Dr. Randazzo said many who commit acts of school violence are in despair and hope to die at a scene through suicide by cop. Sheriff Gannon added that through early intervention, troubled youths can be steered to mental health professionals and hopefully, be returned to school.
Our mission should be, with students especially, to return them to chemistry class. Return them to the football field. We're not here to be punitive, Sheriff Gannon said.
Dr. Randazzo's training was interspersed with national examples of how actual plotted school attacks were thwarted, including one in which a young girl reported to the school principal a friend's plan to bomb a school, though she felt heartsick at betraying a troubled companion.
Dr. Randazzo emphasized the need for a multi-disciplinary approach to building a BTAM team so it includes an array of people bringing information and perspectives to an assessment. She also noted the importance of students “ and other concerned parties “ having a mechanism or trusted school personnel to whom they can report threats or disturbing behavior.
It's a way of making sure people know they have the power to help control safety in their schools, she said.
Thursday's session was attended by law enforcement officers, school employees and school resource officers and mental health professionals from throughout Morris County, as well as Bergen and Union counties.
Union County Acting Prosecutor Lyndsay V. Ruotolo attended, as did Baldwinsville, New York Police Chief Michael W. Lefancheck, past president of the New York State Association of Chiefs of Police; Sergeant Rick Halloran of the Natick Police Department in Natick, Massachusetts, and Officer Willie Buntley of the Frederick Police Department in Frederick, Maryland.