Minnesota STOP School Violence Project

This proposal outlines four distinct but interconnected goals that will collectively help schools across Minnesota create safe learning environments where practices of anti-racism and anti-oppression are embedded, representation and difference is normalized, and every person thrives. Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) will provide guidance, training, and technical assistance to schools on supporting LGBTQ inclusion and preventing and addressing discrimination, bullying, and harassment. The second goal is to develop and implement multidisciplinary behavioral threat assessment (BTA) and/or intervention teams. This will require increased interagency collaboration and the implementation of a learning cohort to support schools to implement best practices for identifying, investigating, assessing, and managing potential threats of targeted violence in school communities. The third goal is to provide specialized training for law enforcement who work in schools. This training will ensure local educational agencies establish and implement quality policies and procedures regarding the use of local law enforcement officers in schools that simultaneously increase school safety and decrease discipline disparities. The final goal is to support St. Paul Public Schools (SPPS) to hire a restorative practices coordinator to install restorative practices and integrate these practices as a foundational component of existing school violence prevention and emergency management at the district and state level. In many ways SPPS is a model for other districts, but they have experienced several violent situations this year, including a fatal stabbing and several instances of gun violence.