After Virginia Tech: Where Do We Go from Here?

Madison, Wis.—July 10 — Two experts on campus safety and student behavioral intervention offered their suggestions to more than 140 institutions participating in the July 10 online seminar “A Framework for Student Mental Health and Violence Prevention.”

Brett A. Sokolow, J.D., president of the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management (NCHERM), and W. Scott Lewis, chair of the University of South Carolina’s Behavioral Intervention Team, reviewed the incident at Virginia Tech and discussed what suggestions it might hold for other colleges and universities.

The seminar’s focus was not to point fingers or critique specific actions but to discuss where all campuses can go from here, Sokolow and Lewis noted. “We can’t prevent everything,” Lewis said, “but we can put ourselves in a better position to respond.”

Sokolow and Lewis offered the following suggestions:

1. Review your disruptive student policies and protocols regularly—not only in the aftermaths of crises. “If you’re not analyzing those [policies and protocols] every year … you’re doing yourself a great disservice,” Lewis said.

2. Create a “culture of training” on these policies and protocols. It’s not enough to simply have protocols, Sokolow said. They need to be put into use. “People shouldn’t die because we let them gather dust,” he said.

3. Train staff and faculty about parent involvement. In most instances, parents can assist the campus in responding appropriately and effectively to a disruptive student, Lewis said. “They have a much better picture of the student’s history … whether there were indicators at age 10, 11, 12,” he noted.

4. Make your policies and protocols tri-partite—addressing prevention, intervention, and, if necessary, “post-vention.” “It should not be only an intervention protocol,” Sokolow said.

During another segment of the live seminar, Lewis elaborated on his institution’s Behavioral Intervention Team (BIT) model for responding to distressed or disruptive students.

Sokolow and Lewis also discussed the impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in working with distressed or disruptive students.

If you missed the July 10 seminar and would like to order a transcript or CD of the event, visit our online catalog.

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