Four years ago, a sixth year student in Rigby, Idaho, fired and injured two peers and a goalkeeper in a college. The tragedy prompted school officials to reinvent what threat prevention is like in the district of around 6,500 students.
Now, the Hope teams managed by students in Rigby schools raise peers with house cards and assemblies. The voluntary fathers patrol within the framework of the dads in service. A team of district staff, advisers, social workers and probation agents are gathering to discuss and support students in difficulty. Thanks to a new mobile phone ban, students are out of screens and talk to each other. The positive results of these combined efforts have been measurable.
“We have helped to change … lives,” explains Brianna Vasquez, an elderly person from Rigby High and member of Spure Squad from his school. “I had friends who were withdrawn from the depression hole and suicidal thoughts because of (The Hope Squad).”
Why we wrote this
While more and more schools use technology to monitor students' threats, educators weigh how to balance it with human -run solutions. Part 2 of a series.
School shots like Rigby pushed American educators to try to prevent similar damage. In the United States, many districts have turned to technology – in particular digital surveillance – such as antidote. Not everyone is sold on this approach, because there can be problems, including with Confidentiality and security. Without a wide agreement on the strategies that work best, some districts try a braided approach – using a combination of technology, threat assessment teams in the field and other mental health supports.
“If you are sitting in the place of a district chief, adopting a several -part approach is probably very sensitive,” said Jennifer Depaoli, principal researcher at Learning Policy Institute, who studied school security.
“It's all about culture”
In Rigby, educators look at human interaction. Artificial intelligence and digital surveillance systems may be less likely to identify who eats lunch alone or withdraw from friends.
“It's all about culture,” said Chad Martin, the Superintendent of the County School District of Jefferson in Rigby. “It starts with that – just having a friend, having a group of friends, having a connection somewhere.”
Rigby's heads of establishment use technology to detect threats, including application, Stopit, which allows students to report anonymously security problems, and surveillance software that monitors the keys to students and examines the disturbing terms. Mr. Martin says that these are useful, but must be used in concert with man-led initiatives.
The version of the district of an evaluation team, which meets monthly, was one of the most impactful tools, said Martin. In these group conversations, the school staff can realize that a student who is missing a class has a parent who has been recently arrested, for example.
“Everyone has a little information,” says Martin. “The objective is therefore to put these people in the same room and to be able to paint an image that can help us support children.”
Although Idaho did not hold The use of threat evaluation teams at school, 11 states in the United States. In 2025, The National Center for Educated Education Statistics that 71% of American public schools have a threat assessment team in place.
A leading model, used by thousands of school districts, is the complete guidelines for the assessment of school threats (CSTAG). These were developed by the medical, medical and legal psychologist Dewey Cornell after spending years studying homicides committed by children or adolescents, including school fire. He says that digital surveillance technology can offer school districts “an illusion of security and security”.
With CSTAG, teams in the school environment use a five -step process when threats emerge. The team includes a school administrator, an advisor or a psychologist, a social worker, a staff member focused on special education and a school resource agent. In serious situations, the group can suspend or move a student elsewhere while performing mental health screening, a law enforcement survey and the development of a security plan. In the end, this plan would be put into force.
If it is properly implemented, says Dr. Cornell, this type of approach is less punitive and more rooted in the intervention. Instead of relying only on technology, Dr. Cornell and its threat assessment guidelines recommend adding humans who can make decisions with schools as situations emerge. He underlines a recent study in Florida, one of the states where threat assessment teams are compulsory. The threats studied by these teams “have led to low school withdrawal rates the report Written by Dr. Cornell and his colleagues researchers from the University of Virginia.
“If you are a school advisor and you can work with a child in difficulty and help put them on the right track, you do not just prevent a school shoot, but you are more likely to prevent a shot that would occur elsewhere and perhaps years in the future,” he said.
Threat evaluation teams – whether using the CSTAG model or another form – has not been immune to the exam. Complaints have emerged about their operation without knowledge of students or parents, or without staff members to represent children with special needs. Criticism has also included concern On discrimination against black and Hispanic students.
Dr. Depaoli, Learning Policy Institute, says that more research is necessary to determine if they successfully identify threats and provide students with appropriate support. She suspects that this comes down to the implementation.
“If you are required to do them, you have to do them with so much training and so much support,” she said.
“People are the solution”
Jordan's school district in UTAH uses the CSTAG model. Travis Hamblin, director of student services, attributes “human connection” to strengthening the district approach to manage threats and, therefore, to stimulate the safety and well-being of students.
Earlier this school year, the district received an alert via Bark, a digital surveillance tool that scans the Google Suite accounts issued by the students. He reported the account of a college, which contained an image drawn by hand of a pistol that had been downloaded.
The notification mobilized the school threat evaluation team. Using the CSTAG decision -making process, the team determined that the student had made no damage, said Mr. Hamblin.
The heads of schools did not unnecessarily degenerate the situation, he says. After their evaluation, they displayed it for the immaturity of the college and asked the student to avoid such drawings in the future.
“When you say,” Why did you do this? ” And they say: “I don't know”. It's the truth, right?
He shares this example to illustrate how the district marries technology surveillance with an evaluation of the threats led by humans. The district uses someone – a former school administrator and advisor – to align bark alerts and communicate with school staff. And the administrators of each district school have undergone training on the evaluation of threats, as well as certain members of their staff.
“A digital tool for us is a tool. This is not the solution, ”explains Mr. Hamblin. “We think people are the solution.”
Idaho efforts
In Rigby, one of these people of solution is Ernie Chavez, whose height makes him extend in a lane streaming with the middle school students. It is one of the dads in service, a program that leads parents to help monitor and interact with students during the passage periods and lunch.
Throughout the school, students contact Mr. Chavez for high-fives. One afternoon in February, it was greeted by applause and cheers. “I don't know what it was,” he said with a smile.
Similarly, the district squads of the district, in place since 2021, have become an active presence inside the school.
The coalitions led by students aim to promote connection and reduce the risk of suicide. Thousands of schools in the United States and Canada have implemented Hope of the squads, But in Rigby, the mission of prevention of violence has become personal.
“We refer … the students each year to advisers, and these students go from some of the worst moments of their lives (to get help),” explains Ms. Vasquez. “We establish the link between adults and teachers with the student.”
The members of The Hope Squad note that the peers which seem depressed or isolated and reach out with a greeting, or sometimes a card in hand.
“We just hold their hands and let them know that people in the community are there for them, just to show them that we care and that they are not alone,” explains Dallas Waldron, member of Rigby High and member of the Hope of Hope.
The groups also provide assemblies and special events, in particular, for example, a week of thematic activities on awareness of mental health.
Emilie Raymond, a second year student in Rigby High, says that the shooting clearly said “that people need to feel included and that they need to find this hope”.
Another change in Rigby schools is a mobile phone ban that has been set up this school year.
Before the ban, students “sit in the corners, isolated, looking at a screen,” said Ryan Erikson, director of Rigby Middle School. Now, “they play games, they make fun … They actually converse.”
While the approach of the Jefferson County school district to stem violence is robust“It's not perfect,” said Martin, the Superintendent. “It's dead life. It's just reality, we will always have things for which we have not prepared or that we were not on our radar. But we contact them and just try to do everything we can to support children. ”
This story was reported by Idaho Education News and Christian Science Monitor. Education collaborative reporting, a coalition of eight editorial rooms, an investigation into the unforeseen consequences of surveillance fueled by AI in schools. The members of the collaboration are Al.com, the Associated Press, the Christian Science Monitor, the Dallas Morning News, the Hechinger Report, the Idaho Education News, the Post and Courier in South Carolina and the Seattle Times.
