Averted School Violence: How NASRO’s checklist helps schools and police act early

At NASRO’s National School Safety Conference, a new checklist and real-world lessons gave schools and police practical tools to respond to threats

September 08, 2025 12:26 PM •

Policewoman talking with parents and children outdoors — Sharing averted cases helps teams refine threat assessment, improve policies and train together with real-world examples.

GRAPEVINE, Texas — On July 10, 2025, at the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) National School Safety Conference on July 10, 2025, Michele Gay, executive director and co-founder of Safe and Sound Schools, led a session on the Averted School Violence (ASV) program, which examines incidents of planned school attacks that were stopped before injury or loss of life.

Gay, a former elementary school teacher, co-founded Safe and Sound Schools after her daughter Josephine was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012, which left 20 children and six educators dead. Since then, she has focused on building practical frameworks to help schools and law enforcement prevent such tragedies.

At the NASRO conference, Gay guided participants through a scenario built around a student’s Snapchat threats and access to a gun at home — prompting discussion of bystander reporting, working with parents to secure firearms and immediate campus safety steps. Attendees, including SROs, educators and administrators, discussed how they would act in their roles if faced with a similar situation in their community.

Scenario-based training: Walking through a school threat assessment

Gay walked attendees through a case scenario: 16-year-old “Sam” is in crisis after a school conflict. A friend shared Snapchat screenshots in which Sam wrote that he was angry, “might bring a gun to school tomorrow,” was hearing voices and had stopped taking his medication.

In the scenario, officers verified that a gun was accessible at home. As Sam’s distress escalated — amplified by local media coverage and renewed suicidal statements — his father took him to a hospital for a mental health evaluation. Police then worked with the family to remove firearms from the home via voluntary surrender and, with the school, kept Sam home until the SRO and school team could meet with the family. The next day, the high school moved to secure mode: more officers on campus, doors locked and students escorted when leaving class.

In the video below, discover the crucial signs that might indicate someone could become an active shooter. What steps can you take to intervene early?

In small-group discussions, attendees identified the following actionable steps for handling a case like this:

Verify and preserve evidence first: Confirm authenticity, capture copies (a photo of the Snaps on a second device to avoid alerts) and route to the SRO/investigators.
Engage the family early and assess access: Ask who knows the safe combination or where keys are, recent storage changes and prior attempts; discuss secure storage or voluntary surrender.
Run a parallel mental health track: Pursue a hospital/crisis evaluation and schedule follow-ups; loop in outside clinicians and ask about recent medication changes.
Set next-day campus measures with clear owners: Pre-assign who activates secure mode, door control, visible presence and escorted movement; re-evaluate by end of day.
Clarify roles for risky tasks: Weapons-related checks belong to law enforcement, while administrators coordinate supports and academics.
Coordinate and document handoffs: Keep SRO–admin–counselor–parent updates flowing; separate schedules (like Sam and the reporting student).
Address the community if rumors spread: Share what you safely can (assembly or parent note) to reinforce that reports are acted on and supports are in place.

Gay then zoomed out from the scenario to the program behind it — the ASV database.

What is the Averted School Violence database?

Launched in 2015, the ASV database documents planned school attacks that were stopped before anyone was harmed. It’s now housed at Safe and Sound Schools and built for practitioners to learn from “saves,” not just tragedies.

Who reports: SROs, school staff, mental health professionals and other safety partners.
What qualifies: Cases with evidence of means, opportunity, motive and intent for a targeted school attack (gang-related incidents or non-credible threats are excluded).
How it works: Reports are anonymous and vetted; identifying details are removed before posting. Practitioners can register to browse the library and use cases for tabletops and training.
Why it matters: Sharing averted cases helps teams refine threat assessment, improve policies and train together with real-world examples.

The Preliminary Law Enforcement Investigation Checklist

From there, Gay connected the “learn from saves” approach to a boots-on-the-ground tool officers can use during fast-moving school threat calls.

Developed by NASRO with funding support from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office), the “Preliminary Law Enforcement Investigation Checklist: Threat of School Violence” helps officers slow down, ask the right questions and document decisions during fast-moving school threat calls. It reflects U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center guidance and the core idea that in high-stakes moments, a simple checklist prevents missed steps.

In the session, Gay showed how to use it at first contact: begin by assessing the overall situation, then move to imminent safety (means, opportunity, motive, intent), and use the back page for recommended actions and clean handoffs. Attendees emphasized making the checklist a standard field tool for SROs and patrol.

How agencies use the checklist:

Field reference: Quick double-check for SROs and patrol. Many agencies laminate it for patrol bags and SRO offices, keep a PDF in CAD/RMS, and print a QR code on the sheet that links to the full form and local contacts (crisis line, school admins).
Team alignment: Used alongside the school’s threat assessment procedures so police and administrators work from the same plan. It clarifies who calls whom, who conducts interviews, who handles weapon access, and how the case is handed off and documented.
Training/tabletops: Drives short roll call drills and school tabletop exercises. Teams practice the before-first-bell timeline, evidence capture (photos of messages) and add “curveballs” (parent unreachable, rumor spreading) — then do a quick after-action to update local practice.

ASV “saves” and a standard checklist help agencies plan for low-frequency, high-risk events before they happen.

| GET THE CHECKLIST: Complete the “Get Access to this Police1 Resource” box on this page to download the “Preliminary Law Enforcement Investigation Checklist: Threat of School Violence.”

Learn more

The Police1 resources below cover prevention-first strategies, building and running threat assessment teams, mental/behavioral health supports and school–police coordination. Use them to brief your team, script tabletop drills and update your checklist-driven response.

Sarah Calams

Sarah Calams, who previously served as associate editor of FireRescue1.com and EMS1.com, is the senior editor of Police1.com and Corrections1.com. In addition to her regular editing duties, Sarah delves deep into the people and issues that make up the public safety industry to bring insights and lessons learned to first responders everywhere.

Sarah graduated with a bachelor’s degree in news/editorial journalism at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. Have a story idea you’d like to discuss? Send Sarah an email or reach out on LinkedIn.