Summary
"Following up on the initial study, Daniels, Volungis, et al. (2010) conducted interviews with school staff and administrators and school resource officers (SRO) who intervened to prevent a school attack. Primary themes that emerged from the qualitative analyses included school conditions, interventions, crisis planning, interpersonal relationships, prevention efforts, and problematic issues. School conditions represents the environments within the school that participants believed contributed to the prevention of the attack and includes efforts to break the code of silence, watchfulness, and establishment of meaningful relationships with students, among others. Intervention represents actions that were taken once the plot was discovered, such as notifying school authorities, conducting search and seizure and maintaining order, and de-escalation. Crisis planning entailed training and practice and adherence to established policies and procedures. Interpersonal relationships referred to prevention through establishment of trusting relationships between school personnel and students. These processes included activities such as establishing trust, treating students with respect and compassion, and accentuating student strengths. Some examples of prevention efforts included following established roles, training and practice, and crisis planning. Finally, problematic issues represents unforeseen problems that emerged during the crisis including missed warning signs and handling the media. Among these, four pertain to conditions the schools had in place that participants believed prevented the attacks. Interventions occurred once the plot was discovered, and problematic issues were identified following closure of the events. The final study of averted school shootings Daniels, Volungis, et al. (2010) identified was a study of the extent to which students broke the "code of silence" and reported plots to authorities (Madfis 2014). The code of silence was identified in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) assessment of school shooters (O’Toole 2000), and represents students’ hesitancy in reporting a fellow student’s threats, plot, or other concerning behavior. From interviews with school personnel and police officers, Madfis (2014) found that post-Columbine, interviewees believed that the code of silence has been diminished but still exists to some extent. This paper presents initial findings from 51 averted school attacks in the Police Foundation’s ASV database, focusing first on case studies and followed by analyses of various data points."--Page 2.