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New violence prevention policy to protect youth By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Directors from Halton's four school boards joined Halton police and other local agencies last week in endorsing policy intended to identify threats within local schools. Halton Deputy Police Chief Andrew Fletcher described the Halton Community Violence Threat Risk Assessment Protocol (VTRA) as a multi-discipline team approach intended to identify, evaluate and assess potential threats to students. "The process is set up now so that a teacher or a principal (who) sees worrisome behaviour in a student, whether it is by texting, whether it is by writing, whether it is by activities, they have a three-stage approach to it," said Fletcher. The purpose of stage one of the VTRA is to determine whether a student actually poses a threat to the safety of others. This can be discussed at the school level, but if the threatening behaviour is more extreme, school administrators can call for a VTRA protocol assessment with police, psychologists and other health-care providers to determine how serious the threat is. "They meet and assess by sharing information. The process breaks down some of the barriers of working in isolation, around legal impediments to sharing information," said Fletcher. The group will collect data about the threat and the youth involved from several sources, such as interviews, reports, parents, staff and eyewitnesses. If the group determines the level of risk is low then in-school supports may be deemed most appropriate. However, if the risk is determined to be medium or high, the process moves to the next stage of the VTRA. Insp. Jackie Gordon said this stage would see the protocol partners work together to create an intervention plan where supports, such as counselling, would be put in place in an effort to prevent the youth from carrying out the threat and continuing down their destructive path. During this stage, the potential victim(s) is also considered in the development safety plans. The third stage of the process involves evaluation and monitoring where adjustments are made to the "The Halton community is great at working together. "The police have done something here that is really quite unprecedented as far as pulling so many people together at the table and getting us all to work in the same direction. This is a protocol that is going to allow us to all bring the best of what we have to offer to the same place, at the same time, when it is needed, all to serve a youth." Gordon said over the past two years about 250 school and community members have been trained on Violent Threat Risk Assessment thanks to a 2011 grant of $41,000 from the Ministry of Community Safety and Corrections. The funding has also enabled Halton to establish an economical way to sustain training. The partners who have signed the protocol include Halton police, Halton District School Board, Halton Catholic District School Board, Conseil scolaire Viamonde, Conseil scolaire de district Catholique Centre-Sud, Provincial Schools Branch (Milton), Halton Healthcare Services, the Mental Health and Emergency Departments of Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital, Halton Children's Aid Society, Halton Region, Reach Out Centre for Kids (ROCK), the John Howard Society of Peel-HaltonDufferin, the MCYS Youth Justice Program, ADAPT Halton, and Woodview Mental Health & Autism Services. The protocol is expected to be ready for implementation March 4. 7 · Thursday, January 31, 2013 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.insideHALTON.com intervention plan in order to ensure the youth is receiving the support he or she needs. "It is a great initiative. It is not a response to some things that just went on in the United States and school shootings," said Fletcher. "It is a proactive way to assist us in dealing with some of these cases that may otherwise just be dealt with informally. There is a formal process now." Dr. Angela Saunders, clinical director of ROCK (Reach Out Centre for Kids), said having this type of plan in place is important. "It's nice to have this many people in the community who are all on the same page because between us all we have a huge amount of skill in this community. We have a ton of resources," she said. Follow Oakville Beaver staff on Twitter @ OakvilleBeaver or @NewsHooked @DavidLea6 @DominikKurek @BeaverSports @Halton_ Photog Annual General Meeting Halton Learning Foundation's 2013 Annual General Meeting will be held Thursday February 28, 2013 at J.W. Singleton Education Centre (Main Boardroom), 2050 Guelph Line, Burlington, ON, starting at 5:00 p.m. Developmental Assets Project Manager, Our Kids Network "Growing Strong Kids" ­ a presentation on the 40 research-based opportunities essential for all kids to succeed and thrive. All members, community partners and interested parties are welcome to attend. 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