62nd Annual Meeting

October 26 - 31, 2015

Media Theatre 14 (open)

Zero Day: Assessment of School Shooters, Implications for Intervention

The film Zero Day is a fictional video diary of two high school students who plan and carry out a school shooting. The intimate portrait of the relationship between the two boys, their interactions with other students, and the activities they engage in prior to and in preparation for the shooting provide a rich opportunity for discussion of school violence threat assessment, violence prevention, and safety planning. The film is the stimulus for interactive discussion on safety assessment and risk factors, as well as the various opportunities the school, legal system, peers, and family members had to intervene and potentially alter the outcome of the film. Attendees design a school violence protocol, outlining what needs to happen at each phase of the protocol, and generating lists of guiding principles for engaging the media or working with families.