Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

VIOLENCE THREAT RISK ASSESSMENT

School District 73 partners with community to keep students safe from violence

Dec 10, 2019 | 3:38 PM

KAMLOOPS — School District 73 today signed an agreement with several community partners to help ensure their students and the community remain safe.

The Violence Threat Risk Assessment (or VTRA) protocol is an agreement between the district, the RCMP, Kamloops Fire Rescue, Lii Michif Otipemisiwak, Secwepemc Child and Family Services, and the Ministry of Children and Family Development. The VTRA means these partners agree to share information if any threat to a school, students, or the community comes to light.

“It’s an agreement between all of the agencies that you see here today, to share information if there’s an incident, or if there’s a student we’re particularly concerned about,” Superintendent Alison Sidow explains. “We would initiate the protocol; all agencies would come together. We’d do what we call a wraparound, where we share information, determine the best way to support the student and the family, and we’d execute the plan.”

There have been several incidents this year, where schools have experienced threats, but luckily those threats turned out to be unfounded. Despite that, Sidow says the district wants to be prepared for any contingency.

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“We have not seen the kind of violence like we’ve seen in other areas of North America, for instance,” Sidow says. “We’ve also taken a very proactive approach, working with Safer Schools, working with other agencies to put together protocols that are research-based, that are evidence-based that we know are very, very effective.”