NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — This school year has been marked by a concerning rise in school threats across Tennessee.
The threats, coupled with an increase in mental health issues among children, mean that police are looking to new ways to train school resource officers.
Messages like "bomb" and "shoot up the school" have been frequently seen by the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD). Teens threatening mass violence against schools has become such a problem the Partners in Care Program has taken notice.
"We have embedded a counselor in the School Safety division in response to the increase in mass shooting school threats and the change in state laws to make sure that these kids receive the mental health evaluation if they are going to interact with the police and a threat assessment," said director of co-response services Michael Randolph.
The Partners in Care program was created in collaboration between MNPD and the Mental Health Cooperative. The goal of the program is to better serve individuals in the community who are experiencing a behavioral health crisis.
According to the program's website, each team works together to "improve access to care for individuals experiencing a behavioral health crisis, divert consumers from the criminal justice system, and into the health care system, and increase the safety of all involved in these crisis interactions."
In front of Metro Council members, Randolph and the MNPD outlined their goals for the next year. Part of their focus is on what's happening inside Metro schools.
"One of the reasons why we are putting our SROs through this training is as we were looking for areas for expanding, and as I was talking to the commander of school safety at the time, we found out that there are a lot of incidents where they encounter mental health situations or they need a full mental health evaluation on some of these individuals," captain Anthony Brooks with the MNPD explained.
Tennessee Homeland Security investigated more than 300 reports of school threats within the first month of this school year.
"When we see children making threats towards other students or making threats towards themselves, it could indicate that there's something underlining going on that they are wanting to express but don't know how to verbalize, so sometimes it does come out in actions," community liaison for specialized crisis services with Youth Villages, Lishenna Clark, said.
The organization Youth Villages works with kids who are often going through serious behavioral problems. Clark explained that having a resource inside the school can be life-changing and can give insight into the root of what a child may be going through.
"Kids spend a lot of their time in the school setting. Most of their day — most of their week even. And of course, they are building relationships there. They have friends there. They are building relationships with their teachers there, so they may be more comfortable sharing certain things that they won't tell their parents," Clark added. "So it's extremely important that schools have staff that know what to look for."
Under the expansion, the program would allow officers to:
- recognize signs of mental illness
- de-escalate situations
- connect people to the proper resources
"Under the program, we have assigned a counselor to our school safety division as well to be able to assist with those," Brooks added. "Our training is starting to fold in school resource officers so that they are better [able] to deal with mental health crisis situations within the school systems."
The Mental Health Cooperative plans to start training School Resource Officers during the summer of 2025.