SRO Threat Assessment & Prevention 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: An SRO receives a tip that a student made an online post saying 'everyone at this school will pay on Friday.' What is the FIRST action the SRO should take?
- Arrest the student immediately for making terroristic threats
- Notify parents and send the student home
- Gather more information, secure the tip, and initiate a threat assessment (Correct answer)
- Increase patrols and wait to see if the behavior continues
Correct answer: Gather more information, secure the tip, and initiate a threat assessment
The first step is to gather information and initiate a formal threat assessment process before determining the appropriate response.
Question 2: Which threat category typically involves a general, non-specific statement such as 'Someone should blow up this school'?
- Direct threat
- Indirect threat (Correct answer)
- Veiled threat
- Conditional threat
Correct answer: Indirect threat
An indirect threat is vague and does not identify a specific target, method, or timeline, unlike a direct or conditional threat.
Question 3: In threat assessment, the term 'fixation' refers to:
- A student's inability to focus in class due to emotional distress
- An increasingly pathological preoccupation with a person or cause (Correct answer)
- A student repeatedly returning to the same conflict or argument
- Obsessive academic focus that excludes social development
Correct answer: An increasingly pathological preoccupation with a person or cause
Fixation is an escalating preoccupation — often with an individual, ideology, or grievance — that can signal movement along the pathway to violence.
Question 4: When conducting a threat assessment interview with a potentially dangerous student, the SRO should:
- Conduct the interview alone to avoid escalating the student's anxiety
- Interview the student in a private setting with another trained professional present (Correct answer)
- Record the interview without informing the student to capture authentic responses
- Begin by informing the student they are being investigated for a crime
Correct answer: Interview the student in a private setting with another trained professional present
Best practice calls for two trained professionals to be present during threat assessment interviews, conducted in a private, non-threatening setting.
Question 5: The Virginia Student Threat Assessment Guidelines (VSTAG) distinguish between 'transient' and 'substantive' threats. A transient threat is BEST described as:
- A threat made by a student with a documented history of violence
- An expression of frustration or anger with no true intent to harm (Correct answer)
- Any threat that does not include a specific location or date
- A threat made anonymously without an identified source
Correct answer: An expression of frustration or anger with no true intent to harm
Transient threats are expressions of anger (e.g., 'I want to kill him') that, when investigated, reveal no genuine intent to harm and can be resolved through brief intervention.
Question 6: Which of the following is the PRIMARY goal of a Behavioral Threat Assessment Team (BTAT) in a school setting?
- To expedite the disciplinary process for students who make threats
- To identify, assess, and manage students on a pathway to violence before an attack occurs (Correct answer)
- To coordinate law enforcement response during an active shooter incident
- To determine whether a student should face criminal prosecution for threat-making
Correct answer: To identify, assess, and manage students on a pathway to violence before an attack occurs
The BTAT's primary mission is prevention — identifying concerning behavior early and intervening before violence occurs.
Question 7: A student who has been subject to ongoing bullying begins making increasingly specific threats against the bully. Which threat assessment principle applies MOST directly?
- Zero tolerance — the threatened student must be expelled regardless of context
- Grievance is a key driver; addressing the underlying conflict may reduce threat level (Correct answer)
- The student should be criminally charged to deter others from making threats
- Only the bully's behavior needs to be addressed since it is the root cause
Correct answer: Grievance is a key driver; addressing the underlying conflict may reduce threat level
Identifying and addressing the grievance is central to threat assessment — intervention should include resolving the underlying conflict to reduce motivation for violence.
SRO Threat Assessment & Prevention 3
An SRO receives a tip that a student made an online post saying 'everyone at this school will pay on Friday.' What is the FIRST action the SRO should take?