Safer Schools Together developed Digital Threat Assessment training in 2015 to keep pace with the ever-evolving technology challenges that affect school and public safety today. These challenges have entered the education domain with force and have overwhelmed school district staff worldwide. The goal is to give attendees a stronger understanding of the current social media world, tools to be able to proactively identify student safety concerns and provide strategies for dealing with online situations as they arise. All aspects of school safety and threats to schools now involve a social media or online component, and we need to prepare. A successful Threat Risk Assessment can only occur if we have a solid understanding of all data needed to assess an individual's potential for violence appropriately. In 2019, we cannot determine an overall assessment of risk without looking at the social media and online activity of the threat maker. It is imperative to understand the tools and methods available to you to identify online threat related behaviour. We use real-life case examples from our subject matter expert work across North America and a significant portion of the day will be spent doing hands-on searching exercises on the most current social media sites and applications.

1-Day Basic DTA Learning Outcomes:

1. Current State of Affairs in Social Media: A Safe Schools Perspective

a. What we see from a state, national, and North American lens

b. How social media continues to impact the safety, culture, and climate of our schools

c. How to crowdsource localized and time relevant social media posts from your school and area

d. Current research relating to technology use and its impact on adolescent brains

e. Assessing the language of the online threat

2. Application of Digital Threat Assessment Theoretical Foundations

a. How the fundamental principles of Behavioural Threat Assessment apply to online digital data

b. How to adequately assess whether an individual poses a risk to a target based on information from the online world

c. Current best practices for teams dealing with sexting and sextortion related incidents as well as guidelines around education and awareness

3. Current Social Media Platforms – Their Use, Misuse and Associated Risks

a. Detailed overviews of the most popular and least common (but essential) apps

b. Live walkthroughs and hands-on activities

c. Snapchat evolution: basics and advanced

d. Instagram: hashtags, best practices, and location-based searching

e. Vault Apps

f. Identifying, responding to and preventing cyberbullying and online hate

i. Impersonation and defamation accounts: Best method for removal

4. Online Verification and Authentication of Images

a. Using free online tools to ascertain whether a photo/image is unique or stock

b. Exercises that will test your eyes to notice the small details within online photographs/videos

c. Screen capturing and documenting online content for both evidentiary and school safety purposes

5. The Vast Smartphone World

a. Tracking capabilities and data stored

b. Examining metadata of photographs

c. Best practices for the preservation of evidence/crucial data

d. Reverse phone number searching

*LAPTOPS: You will need to bring along your fully charged Laptop, MacBook, Microsoft Surface or Google Chromebook to get the most from the hands-on portion of the training. Tablets are not compatible with some aspects of the training, and iPads have limited searching capabilities. Your computer will need unrestricted Wi-Fi access - please test connectivity to a public network (e.g., Starbucks) before attending.