Task force aims to prevent school violence: MySpace threats, bullying will come under scrutiny

Nov 09, 2008 (Ventura County Star - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- NWS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- While safety remains a priority in schools throughout the county, Conejo Valley Unified School District is taking a proactive approach to preventing violence on campus.

This month, district and Thousand Oaks police officials will meet with principals, assistant principals and deans to implement a Threat Assessment Plan.

The goal of the plan is to establish a group on campuses that would function as the "go-to team" and resource if a teacher, parent or student identifies a possible threat or bullying on campus, said Janet Cosaro, assistant superintendent of instruction.

"We want to set up a culture on campuses where they can feel comfortable to go to someone and say, This is what I've heard,'" Cosaro said. "There are students and people on campus -- cafeteria workers, office staff, bus drivers -- who have a lot of interaction with students. The most important message is to know who to report to."

Although there were only a handful of reported bullying incidents on campus and over social networking sites like MySpace last year, Cosaro said the new plan will help campus officials and staff to assess if cases of bullying have a low or high risk for potential violence.

When assessing an individual student who might be at risk, the team also looks at the child's family history to see if there have been instances of neglect, divorce, domestic violent or emotional or physical abuse.

The team would also look at any indicators of violent tendencies, aggressive behavior or academic failure.

At a school board meeting last month, Thousand Oaks Police Capt. Randy Pentis and Sgt. James Fryhoff presented the plan to the trustees.

Fryhoff said schools always have to be prepared for the worst-case scenario, and talked about the fatal school shootings that occurred at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999 and last year at E.O. Green School in Oxnard.

"It's not a matter of if it's going to happen here, but when," Fryhoff said. "In 75 percent of these cases, other kids knew about it before the attack."

Under the district's plan, administrators and staff members must follow several steps to asses any incident, whether it's a possible fight between students, a threatening message on MySpace or something heard in the school hallways, Cosaro said.

If there is an immediate threat or danger, school officials are trained to call police. However, if it is not an emergency, a team would categorize the incident as either high, moderate or low/no threat.

The team would review any warning signs and investigate the sequence of events that led to the confrontation between the students. The district's crisis team and police officials would also be notified if it's needed.

The team would then follow up by notifying parents or guardians or by referring the student for additional intervention such as psychiatric counseling.

"Our overreaching goal is youth safety," Pentis said. "Our approach is, It could happen in Thousand Oaks.' We want to give parents and students somewhere and someone to go to instead of saying, I have this information, but I don't know how to deal with it.'"

Parent involvement is also key to the plan.

"We want parents to be involved and educated because we want to get to the root of the problem," Pentis said. "There may be other symptoms that are contributing to the overall problem that could cause a young person to harm themselves or others.

"There are good kids who sometimes make the wrong choices, and there is often a red flag" before the student acts with violence, Pentis said.

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