People are talking about the “new normal” and the return to a more typical school year. Many of you who are in the classroom on a daily basis may think that it’s nonsense: we can’t pretend that students starting new school years are going to exhibit normal behaviors. The regression that students have experienced—not only cognitively, but emotionally as well—means that we as educators need to be prepared to create an inclusive classroom.
December has traditionally been an identified Critical Period in VTRA practice. Critical Periods are predictable timeframes for increased threat making and threat-related behaviour. As noted in our earlier communications, the increased frequency and complexity of cases was foreseeable this Fall/Winter due to a significant delayed trauma (stress) response to the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic. Highlighted in our VTRA trainings this year, is the message that the “the sky is not falling, this was always predictable”. However, due to the increased number of cases, VTRA Leads in schools, partner agencies, and at the community level may need to triage their cases. It may be more manageable and feasible to do more site-specific incident screenings to mitigate initial risk while awaiting consultation from multi-agency partners. This is because most protocol partners are needing to triage their own casework in comparison to pre-pandemic practice.
We were planning to release a version of this E-Alert next week as a guide to triaging Threat Assessment cases for the remainder of this academic year but the tragedies in Buffalo, New York and Texas have accelerated it. As many of you are aware, we released an E-Alert a little over six months ago highlighting the 500% increase in VTRA cases, during the Fall of this academic year, compared to VTRA cases in the Fall of 2019 (prior to the pandemic). With professional resources being strained and some communities no longer supporting school resource or youth officer programs, the flow of necessary information for violence prevention efforts has been impaired in some areas.
A very special guest was on hand April 26 as 26 partners signed onto the fourth edition of a protocol designed to prevent tragic events such as the school shootings in Columbine, Taber and Sandy Hook here in Greater Sudbury.
A total of 26 organizations signed the fourth edition of the Community Threat Assessment Protocol in Sudbury on Tuesday.
The pandemic, worries about climate change and now war in Ukraine making for stressful times, Kevin Cameron says
The expert who led the crisis response following the 1999 school shooting in Taber, Alberta – just eight days after the Columbine school shooting – will deliver a special presentation for the community on Tuesday, April 26, from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
''There is nothing I can do to bring my beloved 13 back to life, but I can make sure they didn’t die in vain'
Retired principal Frank DeAngelis, who was the principal at Columbine High School in Littleton, Co., when a deadly shooting incident occurred there in 1999, will be at the Caruso Club 6-8 p.m. on April 11.