Proposed, for board reviewFirst 90 days for the guide draft; trainings through months 4 to 12 and every year after
Train the adults a worried young person will actually tell
Use the founders' reach to hundreds of teachers, counselors and practitioners to work toward adults trained to notice warning signs and ask directly (gatekeeper training) in every school building, through trainings the Central Oregon Suicide Prevention Alliance and partners already run, and give parents and teachers a one-page first-hour guide in English and Spanish: what to do when a young person tells you something, who to call tonight, what is not a concern, and what happens after a report.
Other strategies on this site track the trusted-adult item in the Student Health Survey, but tracking it is not the same as training the adults in what to do when a student actually tells them something. That training is the simplest piece of the Know the Signs pillar and the adult half of every tip. In the Secret Service’s study of averted plots, nearly all were stopped because someone, most often a classmate, came forward; the earlier bystander study found that other students often knew beforehand and explains why they stayed silent. Jefferson County students report a trusted adult at school less often than students statewide.
The founders reach hundreds of teachers and school counselors and more than a hundred practitioners. The trainings already exist: the alliance and the county run gatekeeper sessions, Respite Ready offers a free two-hour caregiver training in Bend, Madras and Prineville, and NAMI Central Oregon runs Ending the Silence. The group’s job would be to fill those rooms, propose a per-school target and count only in the aggregate.
Parents and teachers also need a plain page for the first hour: listen, do not promise secrecy, call the counselor or SafeOregon, call 988 or the county crisis line if danger is imminent, lock up firearms and medications tonight, and here is what happens after a report. It would say in plain words that lawful hunting and shooting sports are not warning signs. A companion ask to districts and sheriffs would cover what parents want to know most after any school emergency: how they would be notified and how pickup works.
Why we think it works
- The Secret Service study says every plot was averted because members of the community came forward about concerning behavior, and peers made 61 percent of the reports; not every reporter knew the student, and one plot was uncovered by law enforcement. (Averting Targeted School Violence: A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Plots Against Scho..., strong evidence)
- The Secret Service bystander study found that other students often knew about an attacker's plans beforehand and describes why they did not tell an adult. (Prior Knowledge of Potential School-Based Violence: Information Students Learn May Prev..., moderate evidence)
- Only 56.8 percent of Jefferson County students report a trusted adult at school, versus 68.5 percent statewide. (2024 Student Health Survey Data Tables, Jefferson County (Oregon Health Authority), strong evidence)
- CDC links school connectedness to lower violence, substance use, emotional distress and suicidal thoughts. (CDC, School Connectedness (archived Healthy Schools page), moderate evidence)
- Respite Ready offers a free two-hour caregiver training in Bend, Madras and Prineville. (Respite Ready Training Strengthens Community Support for Youth Behavioral Health (The S..., moderate evidence)
What we would do
- Ask the alliance and the Deschutes County Suicide Prevention Program which gatekeeper trainings they already schedule; batch teachers, counselors, coaches, bus drivers and mentors into existing sessions; propose a per-school target of trained adults and report tri-county counts only.
- Promote Respite Ready (a free two-hour caregiver training) and Ending the Silence, run by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Central Oregon, as the parent and caregiver trainings, in Madras and Prineville first.
- Draft a one-page first-hour guide for parents and a teacher version, in English and Spanish, reviewed by district safety teams and a youth reviewer: listen; do not promise secrecy; call the school counselor or SafeOregon (the state's school safety tip line); call 988 (the national crisis line) or the county crisis line for imminent danger; lock up firearms and medications tonight; and a companion section on what happens after a report, using the categories Oregon State Police uses in its after-action reports (the short follow-up reports schools file on what happened with each tip).
- Include the Secret Service's plain description of concerning behaviors and communications, and state plainly that lawful hunting and shooting sports are not indicators; use National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) guidance for the parent wording in the year after a local tragedy.
- Ask to distribute through districts' existing family communications, the Family Resource Center of Central Oregon, pediatric offices, the Latino Community Association and Oregon State University's Juntos program for Latino families; run a Spanish-language parent cohort in year one; invite a sheriff's deputy or school resource officer (the deputy or officer assigned to a school) to co-present any parent session outside Bend.
- Ask districts and the three sheriffs to publish parent-facing emergency and reunification communication (what to do during a lockdown, where to go, how notification and pickup work), drawing on the state's emergency plans guidance; the group would offer printing and translation and take no credit.
- Propose extending the guide and the trainings beyond graduation to Central Oregon Community College (COCC), OSU-Cascades, employers and the trades, since county reports have pointed to higher risk in the 18 to 24 age group.
How we would know it is working
- Gatekeeper-trained adults per school, reported as tri-county counts (goal: at least two per building)
- First-hour guides distributed by district and language
- Share of parents in sessions who can name the three calls (counselor or SafeOregon, 988 or county crisis, lock it up tonight)
- Districts and sheriffs asked to publish reunification communication, with status reported
- Student Health Survey trusted-adult item by county, reported each cycle
What could get in the way
- A parent session led by a Bend clinician can empty the room in Prineville, and a lesson in the year after a local tragedy needs trauma-informed review.
- Invite a sheriff's deputy or school resource officer to co-present outside Bend; use NCTSN guidance for the wording; ask the district safety team to approve the script.
- Without a what-is-not-a-concern piece, hunting families can get reported, and an ask-your-kid line in a school mailing invites complaints that the school is prompting children to report on parents.
- The guide would say plainly that lawful hunting and shooting sports are not indicators; gun owners would word anything about checking at home; that line would travel with the free lockbox tables, not school mailings.
- Counting trained adults by school reads as grading districts in the recovery year.
- Tri-county counts only; school-level numbers would go back to the High Desert Education Service District (the regional agency that supports all six school districts) and each superintendent.
Who we would work with: Central Oregon Suicide Prevention Alliance and Deschutes County Suicide Prevention Program, Respite Ready and NAMI Central Oregon, District safety teams and school counselors, Family Resource Center of Central Oregon, Latino Community Association and Oregon State University's Juntos program, The three county sheriffs and school resource officers, Central Oregon Community College and OSU-Cascades