Threat Assessment Teams for Institutions of Higher Education: A Review of Key Ideas and Practices for Professional Counselors

This review of literature provides a comprehensive account of the instigative factors, history, and evolution of threat assessment teams (TATs) for target-based violence in institutions of higher education (IHEs). Through examining diverse approaches to threat assessment, this review investigates the most effective criteria for creating protocols to identify and manage threats of target-based violence. The objective is to provide a greater understanding of the precursors and warning signs to threats of violence, including an understanding of what psychosocial factors impel students to enact mass murder, so that TATs can implement preventative strategies to school violence. The generalized findings of the majority of studies point to the necessity for a multi-disciplinary team referencing fact-based predictors of violence, yet applying an individualized and preventative approach to each case of suspected violence.

School Shootings and Therapeutic Interventions for Traumatized Victims

This study attempts an encapsulation of school shooting as a strand of mass violence with the purpose of presenting a perceived effective approach that could be therapeutically adopted for handling traumatized victims of school shooting incidents, particularly traumatized students. School violence involving firearms and high fatalities have been trending in many parts of the world. Pathetically, most of the students who are victims of school shootings receive inadequate or no therapeutic interventions that could help them to recover from the emotional trauma that usually accompany school violence. Students with trauma symptoms experience dysfunctional adaptation, leading to impairment of daily functionality, distortions in peer interactivity, and disruptive self-expressivity. This study leans on family system theory and elucidates how the application of this theory could help the traumatized to regain themselves psychosocially in order to maintain adaptation to function properly in the school or community.

¿El alumnado que participa en violencia escolar, también participa en episodios de agresión cibernética?

Access to information and digital knowledge is an advantage for human development, however, it is also an opportunity for its inappropriate and excessive use. The objective of the study is to describe the roles of participation of school violence, based on their participation in episodes of cyber aggression: Flamming, Denigration, Impersonation, Outing and Trickery, Happy Slapping, Grooming, Exclusion, Cyberstalking, and Harrassment.The research was quantitative with descriptive study and cross-sectional design. 411 high school students from the State of Mexico participated. Two instruments were used, one to measure school violence (α=.95) and the second to measure nine types of cyber aggression (α=.97). A multivariate clustering o conglomerate analysis (k-means) was done to describe groups of students based on school violence, identifying three groups: victims, doble role (victim-bully) and not involved in school violence, from the classification a contrast of means (one-way ANOVA) was made to describe the different types of cyber-aggressive behaviors exhibited by the identified groups. The first conclusion refers that when you are the victim of school violence (face to face), it will also be victims of school violence in virtual environments: flamming, denigration, impersonation, outing and trickery, happy slapping, grooming, exclusion and harassment. It is also concluded that those who participate with a doble role in school violence participate as victims and bully, reproducing violence in virtual environments, which should be taken into account for prevention and intervention program.

Will You Protect Me or Make the Situation Worse?: Teachers’ Responses to School Violence Against Students With Disabilities

School violence is a global public health epidemic, with students with disabilities at a significantly greater risk than their non-disabled peers. Students with disabilities are more vulnerable to school violence from peers, teachers, and school staff due to stereotypes and prejudice. Teachers are pivotal in preventing violence and intervening, but literature on the role that teachers play in responding to disability-based violence is limited. Guided by the social–ecological framework of bullying, this qualitative study explored educators’ responses to school violence against students with disabilities in Zambia. Data generation included document review, interviews, and focus groups with 33 teachers and 12 parents, and child-friendly methods with 90 students with disabilities. Findings illuminated that students with disabilities are less safe in schools. Teachers are not responding to violence seen or heard about due to stigmatizing beliefs and cultural norms surrounding disability and violence, with students with disabilities blamed for the violence and the response being their burden. Students with disabilities felt protected by special education teachers; however, disability-based stigma did not end with the student. By association, special education teachers were experiencing stigma from other teachers and were discouraged to respond. This stigma undermined the support special education teachers could provide to decrease school violence. Findings provide direction so teachers can respond to school violence in prosocial ways that create an environment where students with disabilities feel safe.

IMPLEMENTATION OF INCLUSION IN HIGHER EDUCATION

The authors consider the ways and means of implementing the idea of inclusion in the university educational process. The researchers have included information on the history of inclusion, on various models of inclusive education, and on the specifics of a family with a child with special educational needs in the content of psychological and pedagogical disciplines, as well as elective courses. The authors have introduced new tasks of teaching practice, with students describing conflicts, bullying, mobbing, and school violence in traditional and inclusive classrooms. Stu-dents have been asked to justify their intended actions, which could prevent potential risks and find a competent way out of a difficult situation. Plot-role-playing games and group discussions held in student groups on the problems of "special" children and migrant schoolchildren have also facilitated implementation of the idea of inclusion. Discussion teaches future teachers to coordinate positions, values, to make decisions, and helps them see new personal meanings. Students' daily communication at the university with physically or mentally challenged mates with students of different cultures, faiths, and languages has played a significant role in their acceptance of inclusion.

Antisocial and criminal behaviour, school violence, and dating violence in adolescence

This article is aimed at analyzing three forms of violent behaviour, in addition to what it is that triggers what is known as “interactions among violent behaviours”; that is, what feeds back into violent behaviours, whether it is the victim and/or the aggressor simultaneously. The study sample consisted of 433 adolescents aged 12–19 years from four educational centers: two from ESO and two from FPB from a municipality of Greater Bilbao. The results show differences based on gender, showing a greater involvement among boys, as well as differences according to the educational pathway, with a higher prevalence of FPB students conducting antisocial behaviour than ESO students in school violence forms of behaviour and with no significant differences observed regarding dating violence. Finally, there was evidence to suggest the existence of interactions among violent behaviours.