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REPORT STUDENT MISCONDUCT
REPORT NON-STUDENT MISCONDUCT

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Our Mission

The Office of Student Conduct (OSC) at San Francisco State supports the University's educational purpose and goals set forth by interpreting and enforcing standards of student behavior, related policies and procedures under the State of California Code of Regulations, Title V, sections 41301-41304 through Executive Order 1098, Student Conduct Procedures. Cases involving alleged violations of University policies or campus rules by students should be referred to this office, which is responsible for ensuring the fair and confidential administration of the Student Conduct Procedures. The OSC strives to facilitate student learning, ethical development in connection with the student disciplinary process, promote academic integrity and responsible conduct through outreach, conduct outcomes, and education. The OSC works to maintain a safe and orderly campus environment.

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Be able to articulate why the University community is concerned with their conduct and reflect on any in-congruence between their values and their actions.

2. Understand, reflect and take ownership of their actions.

3. Understand that their conduct has consequences.

4. Learn skills, strategies, and resources that are likely to assist them in avoiding future violations of the Code of Student Conduct.

5. Renew their commitment to embracing their responsibilities as members of the San Francisco State University community and be less likely to engage in violations of the Code of Student Conduct.

6. Renew their commitment to their academic careers and participate in school life that reflects positively on themselves and their campus community.

To report behavioral or conduct issues, please click the link below:

To report academic integrity (class grade related) issues, please click the link below:

To view PDF files, please download Adobe Reader

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The Office of Student Conduct (OSC) at San Francisco State supports the University's educational purpose and goals set forth by interpreting and enforcing standards of student behavior, related policies and procedures under the State of California Code of Regulations, Title V, sections 41301-41304 through Executive Order 1098, Student Conduct Procedures.

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Gender Equity

It is the policy of the State of California that all persons, regardless of their gender, should enjoy freedom from discrimination of any kind in the educational institution of the state. The laws found in the California Education Code 221.5-231.5 are collectively known as the Sex Equity in Education Act. These laws expand upon gender equity and Title IX laws which provide guidance to California's education system. Each Local Educational Agency (LEA) will be responsible for following the laws in addition to Title IX requirements.

Senate Bill 1375 (California Education Code, 221.61), creates new requirements for the Title IX coordinators' informational posts. Title IX coordinators should carefully read and disseminate the following:

1. On or before July 1, 2017, public schools, private schools that receive federal funds and are subject to the requirements of Title IX, school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools shall post in a prominent and conspicuous location on their Internet Web sites all of the following:

1. The name and contact information of the Title IX coordinator for that public school, private school, school district, county office of education, or charter school, which shall include the Title IX coordinator's phone number and email address.

2. The rights of a pupil and the public and the responsibilities of the public school, private school, school district, county office of education, or charter school under Title IX, which shall include, but shall not be limited to, Internet Web links to information about those rights and responsibilities located on the Internet Web sites of the department's Office for Equal Opportunity and the United States Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, and the list of rights specified in Section 221.8.

3. A description of how to file a complaint under Title IX, which shall include all of the following:

1. An explanation of the statute of limitations within which a complaint must be filed after an alleged incident of discrimination has occurred, and how a complaint may be filed beyond the statute of limitations.

2. An explanation of how the complaint will be investigated and how the complainant may further pursue the complaint, including, but not limited to, Internet Web links to this information on the United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights' Internet Web site.

3. An Internet Web link to the United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights complaints form, and the contact information for the office, which shall include the phone number and email address for the office.

2. On or before April 1, 2017, and annually thereafter, the Superintendent shall send a letter through electronic means to all public schools, private schools that receive federal funds and are subject to the requirements of Title IX, school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools informing them of the requirement specified in subdivision (a) and of their responsibilities under Title IX.

3. A public school that does not maintain an Internet Web site may comply with subdivision (a) by posting the information specified in paragraphs (1) to (3), inclusive, of subdivision (a) on the Internet Web site of its school district or county office of education.

4. Nothing in this section shall be construed to require a school or local educational agency to establish an Internet Web site if the school or local educational agency does not already maintain one.

Title IX

Title IX is a federal law that was passed in 1972 to ensure that male and female students and employees in educational settings are treated equally and fairly. It protects against discrimination based on sex (including sexual harassment). In addition, Title IX protects transgender students and students who do not conform to gender stereotypes. State law also prohibits discrimination based on gender (sex), gender expression, gender identity, and sexual orientation. The preamble to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 states that:

"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."

Title IX requires that each school district have at least one person designated as the Title IX Coordinator.

From the regulations governing Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972

(20 U.S.C. 1681, 1682):

106.8 Designation of Responsible Employee and Adoption of Complaint Procedures

1. Designation of responsible employee. Each recipient shall designate at least one employee to coordinate its efforts to comply with and carry out its responsibilities under this part, including any investigation of any complaint communicated to such recipient alleging its noncompliance with this part or alleging any actions which would be prohibited by this part. The recipient shall notify all its students and employees of the name, office address and telephone number of the employee or employees appointed pursuant to this paragraph.

2. Complaint procedure of recipient. A recipient shall adopt and publish grievance procedures providing for prompt and equitable resolution of student and employee complaints alleging any action which would be prohibited by this part.

(Authority: 34 C.F.R. Sec 106.8)

106.9 Dissemination of Policy

1. Notification of policy.

1. Each recipient shall implement specific and continuing steps to notify applicants for admission and employment, students and parents of elementary and secondary school students, employees, sources of referral of applicants for admission and employment, and all unions or professional organizations holding collective bargaining or professional agreements with the recipient, that it does not discriminate on the basis of sex in the educational program or activity which it operates, and that it is required by Title IX and this part not to discriminate in such a manner. Such notification shall contain such information and be made in such manner as the Assistant Secretary finds necessary to apprise such persons of the protections against discrimination assured them by Title IX and this part, but shall state at least that the requirement not to discriminate in the education program or activity extends to employment therein, and to admission thereto unless Subpart C does not apply to the recipient, and that inquiries concerning the application of Title IX and this part to such recipient may be referred to the employee designated pursuant to Sec. 106.8, or to the Assistant Secretary.

2. Each recipient shall make the initial notification required by paragraph (a)(1) of this section within 90 days of the effective date of this part or of the date this part first applies to such recipient, whichever comes later, which notification shall include publication in:

1. Local newspapers;

2. Newspapers and magazines operated by such recipient or by student, alumnae, or alumni groups for or in connection with such recipient; and

3. Memoranda or other written communications distributed to every student and employee of such recipient.

2. Publications.

1. Each recipient shall prominently include a statement of the policy described in paragraph (a) of this section in each announcement, bulletin, catalog, or application form which it makes available to any person of a type, described in paragraph (a) of this section, or which is otherwise used in connection with the recruitment of students or employees.

2. A recipient shall not use or distribute a publication of the type described in this paragraph which suggests, by text or illustration, that such recipient treats applicants, students, or employees differently on the basis of sex except as such treatment is permitted by this part.

3. Distribution. Each recipient shall distribute without discrimination on the basis of sex each publication described in paragraph (b) of this section, and shall apprise each of its admission and employment recruitment representatives of the policy of nondiscrimination described in paragraph (a) of this section, and require such representatives to adhere to such policy.

(Authority: 34 C.F.R. Sec 106.8)

Title IX Coordinators

California Department of Education's Title IX Coordinator:

Randi Thompson, EEO Officer
Equity, Civil Rights, Title IX, ADA/504, MOA Coordinator1430 N Street, Room 4206
Sacramento, CA 95814
Telephone: 916-445-9174
Fax: 916-324-9818
Email: OEOinfo@cde.ca.gov

Sex Equity in Education Act Annual Notification 2019
Title IX District Notification Letter 2013
Title IX Coordinator Survey 2013 (DOC)

Resources for Coordinators

Letter to Title IX Coordinators (PDF) - The United States Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (OCR) sent this letter, on April 24, 2015, as an introduction to all new Title IX coordinators.

Dear Colleague Letter: Title IX Coordinators (PDF) - The OCR sent this letter, on April 24, 2015, as a reminder to all Title IX coordinators of their responsibilities.

Title IX Coordinators Resource Guide (PDF) - A Title IX booklet published by OCR to assist Title IX coordinators in understanding the scope and procedures.

Education Equity/Title IX Resources from the Feminist Majority

Sexual Harassment

State and federal law protects students from all forms of sexual harassment (including sexual violence and sexual abuse). Any student, regardless of their gender, may potentially face sexual harassment which can interfere with a student's academic performance, as well as their emotional and physical well-being. Preventing and remedying sexual harassment in schools is essential to ensuring a safe environment in which students can learn. Title IX coordinators are in the best position to prevent harassment and to lessen the harm to students if, despite their best efforts, acts of sexual harassment do occur.

To assist coordinators in eliminating sexual harassment from schools the United States Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has developed a webpage on Sexual Harassment Resources , which includes, but is not limited to, the following:

Single Sex Programs

In 2006, new Title IX regulations for the establishment of single sex programs in schools were adopted by the OCR. Many factors and legal requirements must be addressed if schools are considering the development of single-sex options. The regulations related to single sex programs can be found in California Education Code 221.5 and 34 CFR 106.34 .

Guidelines on Title IX Requirements Related to Single-Sex Classes and Schools 2002
Dear Colleague Letter on Single-Sex Programs and Title IX 2007

Sex Equity in Competitive Athletics

In accordance with California Education Code 221.9 , each public elementary, secondary, and charter school in California, that offers competitive athletics, are required to make the following information available to the public at the end of each school year:

The total enrollment of the school, classified by gender.

The number of pupils enrolled at the school who participate in competitive athletics, classified by gender.

The number of male and female teams, classified by sport and by competition level.

Competitive Athletics are defined as sports where the activity has coaches, a governing organization, practices, competes during a defined season, and has competition as its primary goal. The required data as stated above should reflect the total number of players on a team roster on the official first day of competition. Schools should post the information on the school's website. If the school does not maintain a website, the school district or charter operator shall post the information on its website. All materials used by the school to compile the data are to be retained by the school for a minimum of three years after the information has been posted.

Uniform Complaint Procedure

Complaints pertaining to Title IX issues should be filed by utilizing the Uniform Complaint Procedures (UCP) as identified in California Code of Regulations, Title 5, Sections 4600 et. seq. For more information on the UCP complaints and appeals visit the CDE's Uniform Complaint Procedures and Resolution of Discrimination/Harassment Complaint pages.

Other resources

Last Reviewed: Friday, April 30, 2021

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It is the policy of the State of California that all persons, regardless of their gender, should enjoy freedom from discrimination of any kind in the educational institution of the state. The laws found in the California Education Code 221.5-231.5 are collectively known as the Sex Equity in Education Act.

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Title IX changes on Transgender Students

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Title IX changes on Transgender Students

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Lea este artículo en español.
It took Xander nearly a decade to try community college again.

The incoming American River College student first attempted higher education in North Carolina in 2013. But navigating campus as a man who is transgender was a nightmare, said Xander, who's now 30 and asked to use his first name only because he did not want to publicly reveal that he is trans.

In the classroom, he said, people refused to call him Xander. Classmates misgendered him, deadnamed him - using his former name from before he transitioned - and told him he was in the wrong bathroom. He never knew when a confrontation might escalate to violence. Eventually, he said, he began living a double life, taking on different personas inside and outside the school walls.

"I was out to my friends, but at school I gave up with letting people deadname me and misgender me, like it wasn't worth the fight anymore," Xander said. "And it wasn't worth the risk."

Xander's experiences mirror those of other transgender students in the U.S.; according to an April survey by The Williams Institute, a think tank at the UCLA School of Law, more than a third of transgender people report experiencing bullying or harassment in college.

President Joe Biden's administration aims to protect students who identify as transgender and nonbinary from discrimination under new rules proposed in June and now making their way through the Education Department's lengthy rulemaking process. If finalized, the changes to Title IX, the 50-year-old civil rights law, would clarify that its ban on discrimination on the basis of sex extends to sexual orientation and gender identity.

So what impact will the expanded protections have on college campuses in California, a state that has already passed laws barring discrimination based on gender identity and gender expression?

Legally, not so much, say civil rights lawyers. But the proposed guidelines will remove ambiguity about what Title IX covers and put more responsibility on schools to address discrimination, they say. Students and college employees who advocate for LGBTQ rights told the CalMatters College Journalism Network that while they applaud the change in federal policy, campuses must go beyond the letter of the law to ensure that they are safe and welcoming places for transgender and nonbinary people to learn.

"What we see is that queer and trans students generally feel less welcome on their college campuses and more concerned about their physical safety, but also their emotional safety," said Emilie Mitchell, dean of social and behavioral sciences at Cosumnes River College and co-organizer of an annual LGBTQ+ summit for the state's community colleges. "Are they going to be mistreated in a classroom? Is their identity going to be a class topic for debate?" The new rules are reassuring, she said, because they give "a lot less wiggle room to people who might want to behave in really destructive ways towards the queer and trans community."

Among other changes, the guidelines require colleges to monitor their campuses for gender discrimination and "take prompt and effective action" to fix it - stronger language than the previous requirement to be "not deliberately indifferent." And by explicitly writing in protections, they ensure that anti-LGBTQ discrimination can be handled under Title IX instead of being rerouted to other disciplinary processes, said Kel O'Hara, a staff attorney at Equal Rights Advocates, a legal and advocacy organization specializing in gender issues.

The new rules also could lead the federal Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights to investigate more gender discrimination complaints against schools, said Carly Mee, a civil rights attorney at Trister, Ross, Schadler & Gold, PLLC.

"It's important to have an external mechanism where you can go and file that complaint and say, 'My school is not protecting my rights,'" she added. "That will be a big deal for trans and nonbinary students."

"While on paper, trans students are certainly protected in our schools, we don't always experience that."
Eli Erlick, UC Santa Cruz doctoral student and co-founder of Trans Student Educational Resources

The Education Department has already issued informal guidance saying that Title IX protections apply to gender and sexual orientation, but a federal judge in July temporarily blocked the department from enforcing that interpretation in 20 states that sued, saying the advice conflicted with anti-trans laws they'd already passed. Controversy has erupted in a number of states over whether transgender students should be allowed to participate on sports teams that correspond with their gender identity; the Biden administration has said it will issue a separate Title IX rule specifically addressing athletics.

Attorneys with the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation argued in a September op-ed in The Hil l that the new rules would "pose a severe threat to free speech" by censoring viewpoints such as that of a professor who "declines to use a student's preferred pronoun because of her religious beliefs."

In California, a new law took effect this year requiring public colleges to update records for students who have legally changed their names, including as a result of a gender transition, and allowing graduates to request an updated copy of their diploma for free. Starting with the next academic year, colleges must allow students to self-identify their names on diplomas even without documentation of a legal name change.

The state's public university systems say they are reviewing the impact the Title IX changes could have for their respective campuses, with University of California spokesperson Stett Holbrook saying they "represent a great improvement over the regulations issued by the previous administration in 2020, many of which UC opposed."

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UC campuses are also rolling out a gender recognition policy that goes beyond the state law to ensure people are identified by their accurate gender identity and name in all their interactions with the university. Another state law will require the community colleges to do the same, starting next fall.

Transgender and nonbinary students say policies alone aren't enough.

"While on paper, trans students are certainly protected in our schools, we don't always experience that," said Eli Erlick, a doctoral student at UC Santa Cruz who co-founded Trans Student Educational Resources, a national organization led by trans youth.

Erlick said it's crucial to have campus support networks built by and for trans people.

When she co-founded the organization, she said, "this was the idea: to help people understand their rights, know their choices and opportunities and know what they can do to protect themselves."

At UC Santa Cruz, Fénix López, a fourth-year undergraduate, has built their own community on campus. Lopez, who identifies as queer and nonbinary, helps run the Lavender Club, a queer undergraduate group, and is a resident assistant for the LGBTQ-themed floor in their college residence hall.

"As a queer person, I feel like I have to make my own spaces," they said. This year, those spaces include a "Queersgiving" event that the club hosted.

"The point was to kind of celebrate not Thanksgiving but gathering with your friends, having a meal with your found family, because I know that the holidays can be rough for a lot of queer individuals," López said.

Universities need to pay more attention to meeting transgender and nonbinary students' basic needs, López said, which include not just housing and food but "making sure you have a community, that you feel that you have that sense of belonging."

"What we see is that queer and trans students generally feel less welcome on their college campuses and more concerned about their physical safety, but also their emotional safety."
Emilie Mitchell, co-organizer, California Community Colleges LGBTQ+ Summit

Despite the protections California transgender and nonbinary students have, campus staff who work with those students say they still regularly hear reports of misgendering and other negative experiences on campus.

delfín bautista, director of the Lionel Cantú Queer Resource Center at UC Santa Cruz, said that while California was more welcoming to transgender and nonbinary students than Florida and Ohio, where they previously lived, "students do feel invisible, and they don't feel necessarily embraced and affirmed."

Per California law, all single-stall restrooms on the UC Santa Cruz campus are gender neutral - but they are in short supply, said bautista, who lower-cases their first and last name. And while UC Santa Cruz policy says that athletes can use whatever locker room they identify with, that doesn't mean they always feel safe doing so, bautista said.

At UC Berkeley, graduate students often tell Em Huang, the campus's director of LGBTQ+ Advancement and Equity, that the professors they work with misgender them or call them by an incorrect name. It can be easier for that to happen in small labs, Huang said, where there are fewer people around to speak up and the student feels isolated.

O'Hara, the Equal Rights Advocates attorney, said that when representing students in Title IX proceedings, they have been misgendered by Title IX coordinators and so have their clients.

"If you're trying to seek safety and protection and resolution on campus, but the people you're interacting with barely understand you, that doesn't feel safe, that doesn't feel OK," O'Hara said.

At American River College, where Mitchell used to work, a 2019 survey found that nearly one-third of about 1200 students felt it was necessary to hide their gender identity from fellow students, with an equal number saying they hid it from their professors.

While the college has a Pride Center, Mitchell estimated that fewer than a dozen of the state's 115 community college campuses have such a center with at least one paid staff person.

"There are a lot of campuses that rely on unpaid volunteer staff or advocates," Mitchell said. "When you're talking about institutional support, right, an institution saying, 'We're really interested in providing high-level services to our queer and trans students,' I don't know how you do that when you rest all those efforts on the shoulders of the committed but unpaid."

The state Legislature allocated $10 million last year to the California community colleges to support LGBTQ students; Melissa Villarin, a spokesperson for the Chancellor's Office, said colleges are using the funds for LGBTQ-focused centers and curriculum, professional development and mental health care, among other services.

Campus advocates say students often are confused about Title IX and what their rights are under the law. Some said universities should create and publicly post an LGBTQ bill of rights, and that the Department of Education should give schools specific examples of prohibited types of conduct unique to transgender and nonbinary students.

The new Title IX rules, said O'Hara, could also make a difference in cases like California State University's Maritime Academy, where the Los Angeles Times reported that "claims of widespread sexual misconduct, homophobia, transphobia and racism" have roiled the campus. One cadet filed a Title IX report over messages in a group text chat where cadet leaders mocked LGBTQ classmates, according to the Times, but both the campus and the Cal State chancellor's office found that the chat, which did not name any person, was protected speech under the First Amendment.

O'Hara, who is not involved in the case, said that their first question as a Title IX attorney would be, "OK, what else is going on?"

"Because if that's how your classmates are talking about you in their private messages, chances are they're doing other things to make you feel uncomfortable in your identity," O'Hara said. The new rules' affirmative monitoring requirement would put the responsibility on the school to gather that evidence, O'Hara said.

In addition to the challenges, transgender students also told the CalMatters College Journalism Network about times they felt supported on campus.

Erlick, who received her bachelor's degree from Pitzer College, said there were a lot more resources there, and later at UC Santa Cruz, than in her hometown of Mendocino County. She found student groups that helped her thrive and learn in an academic environment that also incorporated queer and trans people, she said.

As Xander navigates the enrollment process at American River College, he said staff never mention his former name out loud if it appears in legal documents. Instead, to avoid outing him, they'll show him the name on a computer screen or say the first initial, he said.

While working to have his name changed in the college's system, he connected with a staff member who told him, "Oh, I understand. I'm nonbinary. I went through a name change."

"I was like, wow, that's super cool. Like knowing that there's a trans person on staff," Xander said. "And so that made me feel safer. It made me feel a lot better actually."
Shaikh is a former fellow with the CalMatters College Journalism Network, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. Network fellow Oden Taylor contributed reporting. This story and other higher education coverage are supported by the College Futures Foundation.

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How new Title IX rules could affect California's transgender and nonbinary students

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Lea este artículo en español. It took Xander nearly a decade to try community college again. The incoming American River College student first attempted higher education in North Carolina in 2013. But navigating campus as a man who is transgender was a nightmare, said Xander, who's now 30 and asked to use his first name only because he did not want to publicly reveal that he is trans.

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Rights for parenting and/or pregnant students; student athlete protection; sexual harrassment investigation

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Gender discrimination comes in many forms, and one way we combat inequity is by enforcing Title IX, the 1972 law that prohibits educational institutions from discriminating based on sex. CWLC is a leading expert in Title IX enforcement, and we focus on three ways this law protects the rights of girls and women: athletic opportunities, the treatment of pregnant and parenting students and employees, and campus sexual assault and harassment.

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The University Police Department is a pro-active professional police agency dedicated to providing a safe environment for our campus community. We operate a progressive community policing plan with our budgeted sworn complement of 29 police officers, 6 dispatchers, and 20 Community Service Specialists. The University Police Department consists of a group of dedicated professionals who strive to serve the academic environment and do it with pride.

The University Police Department is staffed twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week with both dispatchers and police officers to serve the needs of the community.

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The University Police Department is a pro-active professional police agency dedicated to providing a safe environment for our campus community. We operate a progressive community policing plan with our budgeted sworn complement of 29 police officers, 6 dispatchers, and 20 Community Service Specialists.

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The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management (DEM) leads the City in planning, preparedness, communication, response, and recovery for daily emergencies, large scale citywide events, and major disasters. In charge of the city's 911 dispatch center and large-scale emergency operations, DEM is the vital link in emergency communication between the public and first responders, and provides key coordination and leadership to City departments, stakeholders, residents, and visitors.

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The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management (DEM) leads the City in planning, preparedness, communication, response, and recovery for daily emergencies, large scale citywide events, and major disasters. In charge of the city's 911 dispatch center and large-scale emergency operations, DEM is the vital link in emergency communication between the public and first responders, and provides key coordination and leadership to City departments, stakeholders, residents, and visitors.

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COVID-19: Due to rapidly increasing infections, San Francisco is now in the most restrictive Purple Tier. Starting Nov. 29th some activities must either suspend operations or reduce their capacity. It also means we will need to comply with the State's Limited Stay at Home Order starting Nov. 30th at 10pm. The Limited Stay at Home Order means no gatherings (indoors or outdoors) with people outside of your household and that non-essential businesses must close between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. Learn more at sf.gov/limitedstayhome.

Continue to take action to protect others and limit the spread of the virus by wearing a face covering, keeping six feet apart and cleaning your hands frequently. For more health and safety information, visit sf.gov/coronavirus.

Emergency Alerts: Text your zipcode to 888-777 or visit alertsf.org to receive emergency alerts from AlertSF.

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COVID-19: Due to rapidly increasing infections, San Francisco is now in the most restrictive Purple Tier. Starting Nov. 29th some activities must either suspend operations or reduce their capacity. It also means we will need to comply with the State's Limited Stay at Home Order starting Nov. 30th at 10pm.

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Current trends in Title IX news

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This free webcast will discuss how campus public safety leaders can effectively incorporate things like the Clery Act, Title IX, customer service, 'helicopter' parents, and more into their safety plans and strategies.

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Making any of these three mistakes could derail your threat assessment program and create liability exposures for your campus or district.
Editor's Note: With so many more children experiencing mental health issues as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it would be wise for schools and school districts to re-evaluate their threat assessment programs. Additionally, with so many teachers, school resource officers, counselors, administrators and other staff members leaving their jobs, many of the individuals responsible for conducting threat assessments before the pandemic may no longer be at your school or district. That's why Campus Safety is re-running the following article that was originally published in January 2016. Despite the evolving threats schools encounter, there are some basic principles that have remained unchanged over the years. The three mistakes that are outlined below continue to be stumbling blocks for some K-12 threat assessment programs. This is an important reminder of what not to do.
"You're the professional. Is this kid a threat or not?" That's the question my director asked, fingers drumming on the athletic calendar drafts stacked on his desk. My waffling response had not provided him the level of confidence he wanted. As with most K-12 threat assessments, clear answers are few, and predictions are reckless. Threat assessments always start and often end with questions.

They run against the grain of the comfort for many of us. If the child is a threat, then we take disciplinary action, perhaps put together a safety plan and coordinate with law enforcement. If the student is not a threat, we mop our collective brow and return to finish whatever work was sidelined during the investigation. As school safety professionals, if we allow our process to end with a toggle switch conclusion and a binary type of answer, we run the risk of exposing our organizations to excessive liability, as well as our students and staff to ongoing but unmanaged threats.

Several elements of the assessment process itself deserve a deeper level of scrutiny. A well-considered, commonly applied and faithfully-executed process not only makes the initial assessment work better but also helps to protect students, staff and the organization itself from future unmanaged threats. As investigators, we work to solve the, "Is he a threat?" question; as professional assessors, we owe it to our students and to our organization to ask a few other questions as well. We can rest assured that if we don't ask ourselves hard questions about our processes, someone's plaintiff attorney will.

Avoid these three mistakes so your threat assessment process stays on track.

Mistake No. 1: Your Threat Assessment Process Isn't Fair and Equitable
Is your assessment process uniform and uniformly applied for all students? Are there different thresholds for the application of interventions? Is it possible that similar behaviors would result in widely varying levels of discipline or support actions? If multiple assessment teams are used, is it possible that behavior interpreted as dangerous by one assessment team would be viewed as negligible by another?
One of two approaches lend themselves to reliable, replicable assessment results. First and best is using a single, multidisciplinary team for all assessments. A good assessment team will represent a variety of professional disciplines, including education, administration, mental health services, security, law enforcement and others as needed. As students are assessed, a body of institutional knowledge begins to develop within this single team. The team learns what works and what doesn't work as a process of conducting the assessments and crafting safety plans.

A second approach is that of a tiered assessment. In other words, a school-level team conducts an initial assessment with a second level assessment team taking those that meet defined extraordinary criteria. Criteria for a level-2 team evaluation could include the complexity of the case, specialized resources needed, level of seriousness of the threat or a variety of other factors. At its most basic level, a school-level team conducts an initial assessment and acts as a filter to manage the least serious threats, while more serious cases are handed off to a district-level team.

This bifurcated system has several pinch points of which to be mindful. Training and exercises need to be disseminated to a much larger group than is needed for a single team. Even if a tool is used to aid in the initial assessment, continual training on the correct application of the tool is necessary for all assessors. Depending on the number of initial assessment teams, the time and expense can be prohibitive. Without thorough and uniform training, there is always the risk of a type-2 error, or the initial assessment team missing important indicators and failing to pass on the case.

Transfer of information needs to also be tightly choreographed. Valuable information can be lost as the case is moved from the initial assessment team to the second level team. As the assessment moves further away from the original, investigative facts can be clouded with layers of unintentional supposition and conjecture.

Mistake No. 2: You Don't Document Your Process Change
Is your assessment process followed in each case? Have you changed or modified your process as a result of lessons learned? Why were process changes needed?
Normally we think of documentation in terms of an investigative file on a specific student or incident. Our process demands similar documentation as well.

Many threat assessment protocols are organic processes that grow and change with an organization. However, a due process hearing or post incident audit will quickly bring to light any inconsistencies over time. We should remember that mental illnesses and the civil legal system often proceed slowly. It's not uncommon to have records subpoenaed many years after a student has left our care. Procedural changes that are clear now will be very murky memories when called to the stand five or 10 years from now.

That is not to say that we shouldn't update our processes, but maintaining an accurate change log of the process allows for an easy answer to questions of perceived unfairness or accused deficiencies.

Mistake No. 3: You Create a Safety Plan You Can't or Don't Execute
After determining that this student was a medium level threat, what did you do?
In K-12 public education, we understand that students who begin to exhibit threatening or dangerous behavior never really go away. While expulsion may be an option in extreme cases, more often than not our responsibility to provide education to all still remains. Especially with young students who are hopefully caught early in the downward slide, expulsion may actually make them and your schools more vulnerable.

The creation of an individual safety plan is often needed to allow for education to continue in the least restrictive safe environment. A student may need additional supports to modify his or her behavior. Behavior contracts, scheduled check-in with a designated staff member, class changes, intake searches, supervised free time, no-backpack rules and a variety of other measures can be crafted together to help diminish negative behavior and stabilize the student.

Safety plans must be balanced against a school's ability to execute them. Great harm can be done by creating a safety plan that is impossible to execute. More damaging still is a safety plan that is ignored. Therefore, campuses must thoughtfully consider what options are available as well as what options are achievable in the specific terms of the safety plan.

A reassessment schedule is a critical component of all safety plans. Scheduling follow-up assessments allows your team to monitor student behavior and evaluate if intervention supports are working. It also provides a means to reduce extraordinary measures if the student seems to have no need for them. A scheduled reassessment provides a rationale for reducing burdensome restrictions over time as student behaviors are documented to stabilize.

"Who knew what and when?" will continue to dog the threat assessment process long after students graduate from our sphere of control and move out into the wider world. In some cases, our interventions and student supports will work, but we realize that in a small number of our cases, the student will go on to commit crime or self-destructive behavior. When that terrible event happens, we need to be assured and be able to demonstrably assure others that our threat assessment process was accurate, fair, thorough and effective. It's always best to know your answers before the question is asked.
Michael Munger formerly served as the head of safety and security for the Independent School District of Boise City, Idaho. He now serves with the Idaho Office of School Safety and Security.

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School Threat Assessments: Avoid These 3 Mistakes When Developing Your Processes

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Making any of these three mistakes could derail your threat assessment program and create liability exposures for your campus or district.

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Student Health provides confidential basic health services as well as primary care, psychiatry, pharmacy, laboratory, and x-ray. We encourage health awareness and educate about preventive care, disease management and treatment choices. Our goal during each visit is that you and SHS medical staff work together to make decisions to promote your health and well-being, now and into the future.