Our Mission
We encourage school personnel, law enforcement officers, mental health professionals, and others involved in school safety to share their averted school violence stories and lessons learned, in order to improve school safety and help prevent future tragedies.
In reviewing cases for inclusion in the database we look for: means, opportunity, motive and intent to carry out targeted school violence. 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.
News and Events
National Police Foundation Changes Name to National Policing Institute
- The National Policing Institute, formerly known as the National Police Foundation, is an independent research organization committed to pursuing excellence in policing through the use and promotion of innovation and science. Today, with a new name that better reflects its purpose, the organization is moving forward with the mission it was created with more than 50 years ago. For more information, visit www.policinginstitute.org
NEW Publications Released
- The National Police Foundation’s Center for Mass Violence Response Studies, in collaboration with the COPS Office, has released a new report examining more than 170 averted acts of school violence. Check out the ASV Publications page to download the report!
Recent ASV Webinars
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- Learning from Averted & Completed School Attacks
This webinar provides an overview of the ASV database and discusses findings from recent analyses of averted and completed acts of school violence. Click here to view the recording.
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- Learning Lessons From the School Attack That Didn’t Happen
This webinar provides an overview of the ASV database and project. Presenters also discuss the training provided in schools to help identify behavior that can lead to violence. Click here to view the recording.
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- Strategies for the Prevention, Response, and Recovery From Acts of Violence in Schools
This webinar explores lessons learned from the response and recovery from acts of school violence. Click here to view the recording.
Recent Reports
Student Turns Himself in to Counselor before Attack
On 6-22-2004, the perpetrator brought two handguns and ammunition in a backpack to the school, arriving at the normal time of approximately 0715 hrs…
Michigan Tip Line (OK2SAY) Works
Suspect solicited various students for a gun. The suspect continued to solicit students for a gun and told some students at the lunch table who he wanted to shoot before shooting himself…
Twitter Threat to Shoot Up College Reported to Tip Line
A university student posted messages on Twitter threatening to carry out a mass casualty attack on his school. The messages included statements saying, “the campus going to get shot up and who will be to blame…
Perpetrator Pulls Fire Alarm to Ambush Students in Dorm
A student at a large public university had not enrolled for spring semester and the university was in the process of removing him from his dorm room. Given that the student had recently lost a portion of his employment income and appeared to have nowhere to move, the university was taking an empathetic approach…
This project was supported by Cooperative Agreement Number 2014-CK-WX-K023 awarded by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions contained herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific agencies, companies, products, or services should not be considered an endorsement by the author(s) or the U.S. Department of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement discussion of the issues.