NJ Schools to Implement Threat Assessment Team by '23-24 School Year

September 26, 2022

As a part of the push to increase safety in campuses across the states following multiple instances of mass shootings, Gov. Phil Murphy signed a law that requires all schools in the state of New Jersey to implement a threat assessment team by the 2023-2024 school year. The team, according to the law, must be comprised of the following members:

School psychologist
Counselor or social worker
Teacher
Administrator
School resource officer (someone who serves as a bridge between the school and law enforcement)

In a statement, Governor Murphy expressed his intent in signing the law, saying, "It is my hope that these threat assessment teams will help students and school employees feel safe and out of harm's way when they are at school, and for students who are considered to be a threat to receive the much-needed help they need at such a crucial time in their lives." Ryan Alcott, a school resource officer who created the program the law was based on, insisted that while there is no foolproof way to identify a potential threat, from his observations there are some behaviors that tend to be found in school shooters.

Despite Murphy's best intentions, some groups worry that regardless of the sensitivity training they receive, the threat assessment teams could have a disparate impact on people of color and other protected classes, insisting that it would further contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline and potentially inflict lasting trauma. Alcott insisted that the law is intended to provide students with the proper resources to help them rather than just remove them from the school and not resolve the issue. He explained his perspective, saying, "[School districts with zero tolerance policies] simply expel the student and put the issue to another district, who unknowingly will take on that threat. Just dishing out punitive action, and hoping for the best does nothing to mitigate a threat."

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