Since that time the Canadian Threat Assessment Training Board was organized in collaboration with Lethbridge Community College and Canadian Federal Justice Department funding was received for a collaborative project developed by Mr. Cameron and Superintendent Glenn Woods, (OIC Behavioural Sciences and lead criminal profiler for the RCMP) that has significantly expanded the work of dealing with high-risk student behaviours and the impact of violent trauma on systems (schools, communities) by developing the framework for student threat assessment training. The threat assessment team protocols and two day training were piloted by Mr. Cameron and Superintendent Glenn Woods during the 2001-2002 school year in Alberta. Modeling multidisciplinary collaboration, Mr. Cameron and the criminal profilers are now training school-based multidisciplinary threat assessment teams across the country.

Further training has been developed for crisis response teams utilizing the TES Model of Trauma Response©. The model replaces the term "crisis response" with "trauma response" to denote what is now understood as the longer-term effects of crises and traumatic events. Many school and community systems have assumed that suicides, car accidents, and even serious acts of violence like school shootings have only temporary effects on their members but clinical experience across North America suggests that multiple factors can influence how quickly recovery occurs or does not occur. Training in the TES Model of Trauma Response focuses on initial trauma response with students, as well as the broader response that includes adult systems (e.g. school staff system and parent system). It includes the process of community intervention and criteria for when these interventions are warranted. The more complex issue of the longer-term impact of trauma on human systems is addressed along with training in how to modify crisis (trauma) response protocols based on the systems' pre-trauma functioning.

In March 2001, Mr. Cameron was invited to Washington, D.C. by members of the United States Secret Service and the U.S. Department of Education, where he presented parts of the TES Model and opened international collaborative relations for the development of threat assessment protocols and related training. In October 2001 Mr. Cameron was invited by Marleen Wong, one of the lead trauma experts in the U.S.Government response to the recent terrorist attacks in New York, to draft and present an academic paper ("Trauma in Human Systems: A Brief Introduction") in Los Angeles to the Los Angeles Unified School District (second largest school district in North America).

Most recently, Mr. Cameron was invited to Washington, D.C. by the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. State Department, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to participate in an International Meeting on Helping Schools Prepare for and Respond to Terrorist Attacks. This ten-country meeting was a first step in addressing the broad issues of domestic and international terrorism. Participants included the United States, Canada, France, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Spain, Britain, Northern Ireland, and Turkey. U.S. Attorney General, John Ashcroft and U.S. Secretary of Education, Roderick Paige addressed this meeting and commented on it's significance in beginning the process of better understanding how to keep our schools safe from traumatic events like the terrorist attacks of September 11th and how to better respond to a broad range of crises and traumatic events.

In conjuction with the above meeting Mr. Cameron was requested by Special Assistant to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education to provide consultation in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Washington, D.C., especially around the concept of "entitlement". The concept was first introduced by Mr. Cameron and is a key factor in understanding aftermath recovery when reviewing how pre-trauma functioning of human systems influences response and recovery to traumatic events.

Currently, Mr. Cameron and his associates are collaborating with professionals from Omagh, Northern Ireland. In August 1998, Omagh became the victim of one of Northern Ireland's worst terrorist attacks as a car bomb set off by the "Real IRA" killed 30 people in the busy market area of Omagh on a Sunday morning. A series of videoconferences have been held to structure further learning conferences that will be broadcast in Canada and Northern Ireland to assist in the training of professionals and students in the areas of: a) dealing with trauma in human systems b) school crisis response, and c) threat assessment. This collaborative effort includes participation from Alberta Mental Health (Ponoka Hospital), Loma Linda University, Graduate School (Marital and Family Therapy Program) Canadian Campus, and Horizon School Division (Taber, AB), and others.

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Columbine High School on
April 20, 1999

 


W.R. Myers Shootings take
place April 28, 1999





Read Three and a Half
Years Later.