CASE MANAGEMENT FOR SCHOOLS

TAG assists schools in managing cases involving threats, threatening behavior, or inappropriate behavior by current or former students, employees, parents, vendors, visitors, neighbors, or others:

• Frightening behavior in the school
• Threatening and inappropriate writings, art work, e-mail, letters, calls, and visits
• Anonymous letters, e-mail, calls, and pages
• Bomb threats
• Stalking and harassment cases
• Domestic violence intruding into the school
• Concerns regarding intentional biological contamination, sabotage, arson, poisoning, chemical exposures, or explosive risks

Although TAG’s original function was to help organizations assess and manage such problems as these, over the past 22 years TAG has devised techniques for helping organizations prevent such problems, learn about those that haven’t been prevented, and respond in ways that are safe and fair. Schools face dangers identical to those of other employers, but with fewer controls and resources than other employers of comparable size. For example, many schools have little control over admissions, little control over access to school grounds and buildings, and no dedicated security staff who answer only to the administration. These factors make it even more important that inappropriate behavior be recognized, reported, and addressed appropriately, which are core features of TAG’s approach. TAG offers schools a full range of services, typically starting with a one-day training program for one or more school districts. This training is available to individual schools, school districts, counties, states, school associations, or other consortia.

SCHOOL VIOLENCE PREVENTION TRAINING

TAG’s one-day school violence prevention training is intended for a wide audience, including:

• School administrators
• School board members
• Teachers
• Coaches
• School psychologists
• Guidance counselors
• Concerned parents
• Student leaders

Curriculum:

• Myths and Facts about School Violence
• Common Errors
• “A Cult of Two” (A&E video)
• The Columbine Psychiatric Autopsy Project
• Use and Abuse of Warning Signs
• Investigation of School Misconduct
• Strategies for Managing Bullying, Intimidation, or Threats
• Group Exercise (case studies)

This day-long program may be hosted and/or sponsored by corporations, foundations, school districts, county or state agencies, or other organizations. There is no limit to the size of the audience, and TAG encourages hosts and sponsors to charge admission fees and to use excess revenues to support school violence prevention.

OTHER SCHOOL SERVICES

TAG also offers:

• Speakers for workshops, town meetings, and evening events on the Columbine Psychiatric Autopsy Project, school violence prevention, and other topics
• Consultation on policies, procedures, and program development regarding school violence prevention
• Consultation on individual cases involving inappropriate, threatening, or dangerous behavior

Secondary School Experience

TAG has played a key role in helping to understand the problem of violence in secondary schools:

• TAG experts were asked by the FBI to assist with their project entitled, “The School Shooter: A Threat Assessment Perspective,” which adopted TAG’s model of school violence prevention
• TAG experts conducted, at the request of the Office of the District Attorney of Jefferson County, Colorado, the Columbine Psychiatric Autopsy Project, exploring the causes of the Columbine High School tragedy and lessons for prevention (featured in Bill Kurtis’ Investigative Reports on the A&E channel in 2002).
• TAG experts have been engaged by prosecutors’ offices to evaluate the mental state of the offenders in highly publicized multiple-victim school shootings, including Oregon v. Kip Kinkel, Interest of Anthony B. Solomon, Jr. (shooting at Heritage High School, Rockdale, GA), and California v. Charles Andrew Williams
• TAG experts have presented educational symposia to school administrators in California, New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia

Examples of other school violence with which TAG experts have dealt but which are not a matter of public record, include:

• Management of a situation in which a school district maintenance worker made verbal threats to kill two coworkers for more than 2 1/2 years
• Management of a situation in which a psychotic man threatened members of the school board
• Prosecution of a high school senior who was involved in a knife assault against other students
• A civil suit resulting from a student shooting a counselor who denied his request to return to school
• Prosecution for a domestic homicide on the grounds of a school located on a Navajo Reservation
• Negligent security suit against school district where a volunteer at the school snack bar was raped
• Civil suit by 17-year-old woman who claims sexual abuse by the basketball coach
• Civil suit for wrongful death of a student who died after a “birthday spanking”
• Civil suit arising from sexual assault by a substitute teacher
• Civil suit arising from sexual assaults of developmentally disabled students by a teacher who was moved from school to school within the district as complaints arose
• Civil suit against a pharmaceutical company by the family of a student expelled for threatening classmates (claiming the medication made him do it)
• Civil suit arising from a student’s false allegation that a school custodian raped her
• Civil suit for the sexual assault of a disabled student by a school staff member
• Civil suit against a pharmaceutical company by victims of a school shooting (claiming the medication made one of the shooters do it)
• Civil suits arising from a teacher’s molestation of female students
• Civil suit arising from the on-campus rape of a cheerleader by a serial rapist

Through a sister company, Park Dietz & Associates, TAG experts consult with plaintiff and defense attorneys in evaluating legal claims involving harassment, discrimination, sexual misconduct, personal injury, or violence in schools.