ST. LOUIS—On June 8-9, 2023, the FBI St. Louis Division hosted a two-day School Safety Initiative (SSI) conference for more than 275 school administrators, school staff, and law enforcement officers from the St. Louis area.

“We appreciate the opportunity to raise awareness with school administrators and police departments about behaviors that could indicate an individual is actively moving toward violence,” said FBI St. Louis Division Special Agent in Charge Jay Greenberg. “This initiative is designed to help schools prevent acts of violence, terrorism, and in particular, school shootings, by identifying at-risk students early, and diverting them away from violence and onto healthier paths.” Conference topics included: Pre-Violence Indicators in Students, Building School Threat Assessment Teams, Student Mental Health, Crisis Intervention Resources, Hoax and Swatting Threats, Sextortion, and the Physical Security of Schools.

FBI St. Louis Division initiated the SSI program in 2021 to use a whole of ecosystem approach by bringing together school safety stakeholders, providing resources, and encouraging the creation of internal school-based threat assessment teams. The goal is to increase awareness of violence indicators to identify and prevent young people who may be vulnerable to becoming radicalized to violence and terrorism.

For this event, the FBI St. Louis Division collaborated with the Missouri School Board Association (MSBA) Center for Education Safety, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), and experts from Saint Louis University and Washington University in St. Louis. We thank the Ladue School District for hosting the conference.

FBI St. Louis Division is planning to offer similar conferences in the future for school districts in other regions of Eastern Missouri.