Virginia Tech to host forum on threat assessment implementation, best practices
In order to help Virginia colleges and universities develop and adopt organizational structures charged with the prevention of violence on campus, Virginia Tech will host a educational forum on campus threat assessment teams, case management, policies, and procedures.
The two day event will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 1 from noon to 5:30 p.m. and Wednesday, Dec. 2 from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center. The conference is intended for higher education administrators, law enforcement personnel, and faculty who oversee or support threat assessment programs at their institution.
In the aftermath of the April 16, 2007, tragedy, the Virginia General Assembly mandated that all public colleges and universities develop plans and appropriate campus policies, structures, and organizations to help identify at risk behaviors in a higher education setting.
In addition, the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools awarded Virginia Tech a grant to implement a demonstration project aimed at designing and implementing processes for assessing at-risk employees and students in a higher education setting. This forum will present the results of Virginia Tech’s demonstration project.
The forum will include a presentation by Virginia Tech Senior Vice President and Provost Mark McNamee who will describe the university’s efforts to implement threat assessment and supporting processes. Following this presentation, Marisa Randazzo, president of Threat Assessment Resources International and Gene Deisinger, deputy chief of police at Virginia Tech and the university’s director of threat management services, will provide threat assessment team training to conference participants.
The U.S. Department of Education, Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools and the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services are co-sponsors of this event. Law enforcement officers attending this conference will receive partial in-service credit. The Department of Criminal Justice Services say they tentatively plan to offer similar threat assessment team trainings throughout Virginia in 2010.
Lunch on Tuesday and breakfast on Wednesday are included. Registration is posted online; cost is $25 and space is limited. Participants will receive a copy of The Handbook for Campus Threat Assessment & Management Teams written by Deisinger, Randazzo, Dan O’Neill, and Jenna Savage and a copy of Implementing Behavioral Threat Assessment on Campus: A Virginia Tech Demonstration Project written by Randazzo and Ellen Plummer.
For more information on the event, contact Emily Reineke, threat assessment team coordinator at Virginia Tech at (540) 231-7194.
