More than 60 representatives from local schools, law enforcement agencies and other community organizations recently attended a training course designed to help communities prevent targeted violence through behavioral threat assessment teams.
The Herkimer County Behavioral Threat Assessment Team and Herkimer-Fulton-Hamilton-Otsego BOCES Safety Services requested the workshop and invited stakeholders to it.
“I just want to give the schools as many tools as they can get to help keep their students safe,” Herkimer BOCES Supervisor of Safety Services Adam Hutchinson said. “If we can do that through prevention, that’s even better than anything else.”
The daylong workshop took place on Wednesday, Nov. 5, at the Herkimer BOCES Gateway Center in Herkimer. Attendees took the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s National Threat Evaluation and Reporting Office’s Basic Threat Evaluation and Reporting Course.
The New York State Division of Homeland Security Emergency Services’ Office of Counter Terrorism’s Domestic Terrorism Prevention Unit put on the Basic Threat Evaluation and Reporting Course. Domestic Terrorism Prevention Unit analysts Taylor Ellis, Regina Hanks and Audra Fox presented the training about the behavioral threat assessment model and how it is a preventative tool that relies on the community.
School administrators and counselors attended the event along with representatives from local law enforcement agencies, the Herkimer County Emergency Services 911 Department, Herkimer College, Wynn Hospital, Catholic Charities and more.
Hutchinson said it was an even bigger turnout than he expected.
“I’m very happy with the response,” Hutchinson said. “It does show important it is.”
Central Valley Superintendent Jeremy Rich said he went through the course previously but wanted to attend again to bring other administrators with him and hear from different presenters.
“The biggest thing from a school perspective is to help keep the school and the school community safe,” Rich said.
Any information that schools can get is helpful, and the behavioral threat assessment model puts a system in place that gives schools a logical process to manage things and try to keep everyone safe, Rich said. It gives schools, law enforcement agencies and others a common language for dealing with concerns or emergencies, he said.
“If everybody is on the same page, it makes it easier to manage things,” Rich said. “Knowing that law enforcement and other agencies are here, it gives me more peace of mind.”
Rich had three children who attended the district from prekindergarten through graduation, so he said he understands as both a parent and administrator that the only thing more important than education at schools is safety.
“Our No. 1 goal is safety of children while they come to school,” Rich said. “Parents expect students to go to school and come home safely every day.”
Below: Taylor Ellis, senior analyst for the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Unit of the Office of Counter Terrorism of the New York State Division of Homeland Security Emergency Services, presents to about the behavioral threat assessment model to local school and law enforcement officials on Wednesday, Nov. 5, at the Herkimer-Fulton-Hamilton-Otsego BOCES Gateway Center in Herkimer.
Below: Regina Hanks, education and awareness analyst for the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Unit of the Office of Counter Terrorism of the New York State Division of Homeland Security Emergency Services, presents to about the behavioral threat assessment model to local school and law enforcement officials on Wednesday, Nov. 5, at the Herkimer-Fulton-Hamilton-Otsego BOCES Gateway Center in Herkimer.
