Highlights:
- Prevent 2 Protect is an unprecedented project taking a multi-disciplinary approach to preventing adolescent-targeted school violence and supporting high-risk K-12 students
- Bill 5549 was signed into law by Gov. Whitmer, requiring school boards and governing bodies to put together behavior threat assessment and management (BTAM) teams
- The Prevent 2 Protect team supports schools in the management of students who have received a school behavioral threat assessment by providing longitudinal support, case management, monitoring, and mentorship to high-risk adolescents.
EAST LANSING, Mich. – In 2022, a Michigan-based pilot project received funding from Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Legislature as part of the Department of Education’s School Aid budget. The project, Prevent 2 Protect, is the first-of-its-kind program focused on preventing acts of targeted adolescent violence through holistic interdisciplinary assessment, the construction of individualized care plans, and intensive management support teams. With expert team members coming from mental health, education, and law enforcement, the project is committed to increasing school safety and supporting Michigan schools.
Prevent 2 Protect, housed in the Department of Psychiatry at Michigan State University, currently serves four regions in the state – Calhoun ISD, West Shore ESD, school districts in Ingham County, and Lincoln Park Public Schools in Wayne County. Regional intensive support teams – comprised of a case manager and mentor based in the school community – monitor and coach adolescents to help them reach their prosocial goals. Behavioral Threat Assessment (BTAM) evaluations are the first step in this process.
When potential participants are referred to the project, school-based behavioral threat assessments give the Prevent 2 Protect team an idea of what steps schools have already taken to assess and address the student’s behavior. “BTAMs are critical for our work,” said Alyse Folino Ley, D.O.. Dr. Folino Ley is a child and adolescent psychiatrist, a professor at MSU’s Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine and Human Medicine, and the director of Prevent 2 Protect.
Once an adolescent has made a threat and their level of risk is determined, those who pose a significant threat are referred to Prevent 2 Protect. Prevent 2 Protect then provides a holistic multidisciplinary psychiatric assessment, criminogenic analysis, and needs assessment for each adolescent, then creates an individualized care plan that is implemented by the regional teams in the child’s community. P2P provides intensive support through case management and mentorship to the at-risk child within their community.
“We believe by supporting one child we will save many,” Dr. Folino Ley said.
A group of new school safety laws signed by Gov. Whitmer at the end of January includes a bill requiring school districts and governing bodies of schools to form a BTAM team to assess students’ threatening behavior, among other duties.
“It aligns with our mission to support those high-risk adolescents and prevent targeted violence by getting them some early intervention,” said Syriah Dobis, the regional case manager for the West Shore ESD region. “Identifying the concerning behaviors before they’re escalated into threats is crucial.”
Behavioral threat assessments are best practice and completed before students are referred to Prevent 2 Protect. The project then helps to manage the high-risk adolescent using a multidisciplinary team of professionals with expertise in psychiatry, school psychology, social work, education, law enforcement, forensic interviewing, trauma, and juvenile justice. Prevent 2 Protect aims to lift the burden off schools after the threat assessment is complete. Dobis believes implementing dedicated school teams in every district may help streamline the threat assessment process. “It’ll help us gain a better understanding of how the school views the threat,” she said.
The bill also mandates the department of state police to put together school safety and security training and present that training annually to public and nonpublic schools.
Mary Gebara is the regional case manager for the project’s Ingham region. Gebara views the annual training as a crucial part of the bill. “Everybody needs to know what schools have and need in terms of a threat assessment and how the schools address high-risk types of situations,” Gebara said.
Prevent 2 Protect provides training for schools, community groups, state, and national organizations on topics pertinent to the management of high-risk adolescents. Gebara is optimistic that the new bill will raise awareness of the project throughout the state. “I’m hopeful that it will allow people to explore our pilot intervention and allow us to teach people what we know about the management of high-risk adolescents in the community context,” she said.
Managing the highest-risk adolescents in the community demands resources, time, and expertise. Prevent 2 Protect provides support, intensive interventions, and guidance to schools, who are often overwhelmed with the task of managing high-risk adolescents. “P2P provides the schools with Intensive Support Teams (IST) and access to mental health, case management, and law enforcement expertise to aid in managing the high-risk student,” Dobis said.
The new bill issues critical guidelines for establishing BTAM teams training school employees in behavioral threat assessment and management. The Prevent 2 Protect cross-systems intervention approach is now needed more than ever. “Managing high-risk kids requires extensive time and dedication,” Folino Ley said. “We are the bridge between mental health, schools, and law enforcement in the management of high-risk kids identified through BTAM teams.”
A holistic, multidisciplinary approach to managing the underlying behavioral issues is a pivotal aspect of not only dealing with the immediate concerns but also the long-term complex issues. Prevent 2 Protect supplies longitudinal management, systems and resource navigation, and mentorship for high-risk kids after BTAM evaluations. “The Prevent 2 Protect model is the next critical step after the BTAM is complete to support schools in the management of high-risk adolescents within a community context,” Folino Ley said.
“We are giving people and schools access to resources they may not have otherwise,” Gebara said. “I feel like the schools, the parents, and the families we work with have a sense of, you know, these people have my back.”
“And that is invaluable.”
By Lieza Klemm
Media contact: Lieza Klemm, 517-329-2231, klemmlie@msu.edu