Tahlequah Public Schools STOP School Violence Program

Tahlequah Public School District (TPSD) will utilize develop and implement multidisciplinary behavioral threat assessments (BTA) and coordinated response teams. To ensure that staff are equipped to respond in crisis, this project will also train school personnel and educate students on preventing school violence. This includes trainings for school officials on intervening and responding to individuals in mental health crises; social-emotional learning; trauma informed care in the classroom setting; motivational interviewing techniques; youth mental health first aid; nonviolent crisis intervention; suicide prevention; Question, Persuade, Refer training; anti-bullying prevention; identifying human trafficking; and de-escalation techniques. It will hire a violence interrupter, a school climate transformation specialist, and a safety coordinator/threat manager. It will also work with CREOKS Behavioral Health to provide specialized trainings for School Resource Officers and local law enforcement personnel, which includes trauma informed care, mental health first aid, and developmentally appropriate communication strategies.