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An averted incident of school violence is a shooting or other planned violent attack that was prevented before any injury or loss of life occurred at the targeted educational institution.
Since 2015, school personnel, law enforcement officers, mental health professionals, and others involved in school safety have had the opportunity to share their averted school violence stories and lessons learned, in order to improve school safety and help prevent future tragedies. Read more on the full ASV history here.
In reviewing cases for inclusion in the database we look for: means, opportunity, motive and intent to carry out a targeted school attack. Incidents of violence on school grounds not related to the school (e.g., gang-related violence) and social media threats not deemed credible by law enforcement are excluded from the database.
Sharing your story is an anonymous, secure, non-punitive, and confidential process.
RECENT
Events
ATAP Winter Conference
On February 6th, Dr. Alyse Folino Ley and Dr. Frank Straub presented at the 2024 Association of Threat Assessment Specialists (ATAP) Winter Conference in Orlando, FL. They discussed an incident of averted school violence in Paw Paw, MI, which turned tragic three years later. They also spoke about the Prevent 2 Protect Project, the Adolescent Targeted Violence Prevention Project with Michigan State University and Safe and Sound Schools.
School Safety Academy in MI
On April 9th, Michele Gay and Melissa A. Louvar Reeves participated in the School Safety Academy organized by the Michigan State Police’s Office of School Safety in Livonia, MI.
FBI Warning regarding Sextortion
On January 22, 2024, the FBI’s Detroit Field Office issued a warning regarding Sextortion.
On average, it takes 30 minutes to complete a report. This estimate can increase depending on the complexity of the case, availability of relevant information, and the level of detail the submitter is willing to provide.
If there is a concern that an agency is tracking this information, we recommend that incidents be reported from a personal laptop/personal desktop system.
Through our reporting system, we are looking for individual and agency level interpretations of averted school violence incidents as well as the lessons that each submitter may have learned in the situation. We recommend that submitters submit any incident in which there has been a lesson learned and school personnel, law enforcement officers, and mental health professionals can learn from it, even if it is possible someone else may have already submitted it. Our data collection system will flag incidents that occurred on the same date, and a reviewer will determine if the two incidents are the same. If they are the same, we will either merge the case details and lessons learned to create one document, or publish each report on the site under a single incident name.
Reports will usually be posted within two weeks, unless they require more extensive review.
Each report goes through a thorough vetting and de-identification process. This process usually takes about two weeks. If there is any risk that an incident could be linked to a specific individual, organization, or that the case must remain anonymous, it will not be posted or made publicly available. To the extent that we can share the lesson(s) learned without providing detail that would compromise (anonymity), we will include the information. In some instances, one of the experts from our review panel may have tried to contact the submitter for clarification or additional information, and the submitter has not responded. In such cases, we will not be able to post the report until the submitter can clarify the information needed to post the report.
Submitters have a two-hour window to complete a report once initiated before the system will time out. If at all possible, submitters should try to ensure a window of 30 minutes is available before beginning a report so that it can be completed in one sitting.
Any information submitters can provide will be helpful to the extent that this helps to illustrate a “lesson learned” or offer a “tip” for others. The system allows submitters to skip any questions by jumping ahead to those questions that are most appropriate and/or the submitter is willing or able to answer.
After being vetted and de-identified by a panel of school violence subject matter experts, the incident reports are published and posted to the online database. This usually occurs in about five days, but could take as long as two weeks, depending on whether additional information is needed to complete the incident report. The library of shared reports can be an invaluable training and informational resource. Reports will be analyzed to identify trends, emerging threats, lessons learned, and to inform prevention, intervention and response policies and practices.
FREQUENTLY ASKED
Questions
A list of commonly asked questions about Averted School Violence Database Project regarding anonymity, information, posting and more.