Connecticut educators learn how to deal with threats

HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — Educators and school resource officers with the state’s technical high schools and adult learning programs received training on Wednesday to help them deal with threats.

The training is called Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines, or CSTAG, and it is aimed at helping them identify, assess and manage threatening situations in schools.

The video below aired on Aug. 14.

“A lot of the times students make threats because they’re waving a red flag,” said Amery Bernhardt, the director of the Connecticut Center for School Safety and Crisis Preparation. “They’re looking for help and this helps you identify that and put the appropriate interventions without overreacting or underreacting.”

The training is funded through a Department of Homeland Security grant.

“Really what it is is a violence prevention strategy,” said Lt. Anthony Guiliano, the threat management program coordinator with Connecticut State Police.

His troopers serve as the school resource officers for the state’s technical high schools like Prince Tech in Hartford, where Wednesday’s training took place.

“It’s our job as law enforcement, but also for the school administrators, is to recognize those signs, those threatening behaviors, or statements and then help the child,” Guiliano said. “Our goal here isn’t to arrest children or to get them in any sort of trouble. Our job is to get them the help they need.”

They want that help to come before a situation escalates into targeted violence like a school shooting, for which troopers also train.

Wednesday, though, was about prevention and early intervention and bringing together the administrators and troopers so they learn how to divert students from what they call a pathway to violence.

“It’s about being on the same page,” said Justin Lowe, the superintendent of the Connecticut Technical Education and Career Systems. “It’s about working together. Talking through common issues and just being prepared for anything.”

During one of the training exercises, participants were broken up into groups of educators and law enforcement, who work together at the same school, so they could collaborate, just as they would in a real life scenario.

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