MICHIGAN, USA — As threats continue to be made in school districts across West Michigan, a former police officer has suggestions for how districts can handle the scary situations.
Mo Canady is the executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers.
As districts across the country continue to deal with increased threats, he said, "it has unfortunately become a part of our daily life in the school safety world."
Just this week, 13 ON YOUR SIDE reported on threats in the Northview and Forest Hills Public School Districts. Previously, we've told you about similar situations in Comstock, Mona Shores, Grandville, Jenison, Three Rivers, Byron Center, East Kentwood and Newaygo.
Canady is concerned with how often this ends up with schools shutting down.
"We saw the impact that had on them during the pandemic," he said, but also because, "the person who's making the threat is getting exactly what they want, chaos."
He suggested utilizing a behavioral threat assessment system.
Canady explained, "where we have professionals who are trained to deal with threats and to really be able to peel back the layers of the onion and come to a determination as to whether we're dealing with, really a viable threat or not."
A team could include:
- Mental health specialists
- School counselors
- School administration
- School nurses
- Law enforcement
"This becomes a team process of taking all the components of a threat and all of these threats, every one of them, stand on their own, each case is different, so we have to be careful on how we approach that."
Canady made clear he is not putting down school leaders who have chosen to close amid threats.
"There is a natural instinct to do what we feel like we have to do to keep kids safe, all I'm saying is releasing school and sending them home may not necessarily be keeping them any safer, and it may very well not solve the problem, it may complicate it even further."
For information on training offered by the National Association of School Resource Officers, click here.