How should a student showing warning signs of violent behavior be handled?
A school administrator should first contact the school counsellor, and if the school does not have a counsellor, then there needs to be some outreach into the community mental health service to provide services to the school. Also outreach to the parent. Share the concerns about that student to the parent. And the administrator needs to articulate observations - specific behaviour - specific things that that student exhibited that caused the concern. Whenever presenting anything like that to parents, and to community mental health, and to the school's mental health, it needs to be very specific and articulated in a manner by which people can act upon it and be as objective as possible. If it is imminent, then you do not have a lot of time to do any outreach to the child. If it is early warning signs, there is a lot of opportunity to provide outreach to the child. Maybe enrolling the child in a Boys and Girls Club. There is always an opportunity to provide outreach to the child. But it has to be appropriate, and then of course it has to be age appropriate, depending on the child's age. You would not want to provide outreach to a six year old if they are displaying the signs. Maybe their parents would be a better way to go. So it depends on what type of behaviour that child is exhibiting.
