ABSTRACT
One of the legacies of the school shootings of the 1990s was that school officials became acutely concerned with student threats of violence. Columbine students recalled that the two boys repeatedly talked about shooting people and setting off bombs. The upsurge in threats was no coincidence; the students were inspired and stimulated by the lurid news coverage of school shootings. Zero tolerance is even more attractive to administrators because it eliminates their need to make subjective judgments about the meaning or intent of a student's behavior. The students were suspended for violation of the school district's policy against threats, which defines a threat as any statement, written or spoken, or action which creates a reasonable fear of bodily harm. If Steve attended a school using a threat assessment approach, the principal would want to determine what Steve meant by his threatening statement and whether it constituted a serious threat or merely an expression of anger.
