Perpetrators of serious campus violence don’t “just snap.” These incidents are not impulsive or random. Violent offenders typically plan and prepare before engaging in violent behavior; and most discuss their plans with others before the attack.
“…dangerous people rarely show all of their symptoms to just one department or group on campus. A professor may see a problem in an essay, the campus police may endure belligerent statements, a resident assistant may notice the student is a loner, the counseling center may notice that the student fails to appear for a follow-up visit. Acting independently, no department is likely to solve the problem. In short, colleges must recognize that managing an educational environment is a team effort, calling for collaboration and multilateral solutions.”
Source: Peter Lake, Chronicle of Higher Ed
Early and appropriate interventions can greatly diminish the likelihood of violence. Information about a person’s ideas and plans for violence can be observed or discovered before harm can occur, but information available is likely to be scattered and fragmented. The key to preventing violence is to act quickly upon an initial report of concern, see who else has a piece of the puzzle, then pull all the information together to see what picture emerges.
The CARE Team is a centralized campus team that seeks to do away with the “information silos” that exist on campus by sharing information and coordinating TSC’s resources to address the needs of individuals who are experiencing significant behavioral disturbances.