Thanks for the responses. Let me clarify since I was quickly relaying stuff in the initial post. The report insinuates that a risk assessment should be done on my son in the future- it does not say right now although this sd psychiatric would probably like that, it is not justified. The reason it isn't justified is because she is flipped out over verbal threats difficult child made in 5th grade- 2005/2006 school year- that were never followed thru with but she learned about them because the elementary school principal put notes in difficult child's file about one and the other was mentioned in difficult child's neuropsychologist report from spring 2006. This time period was when difficult child first starting showing erratic behavior and he went to psychiatric hospital in Feb 2006 and Mar 2006. Then, since he was fine for a while but set a brush fire in spring 2007 and pulled a knife on me this past winter. Still, he has not had aggressive incidences with other kids other than a couple of pushing matches at school in 6th and 7th grade with- no weapon, threat of bodily harm, etc. Remember when he pulled the knife on me, I was in a vunerable position and he could have killed me but actually did not physically harm me- when I told him "no", he moved the knife. He HAS cut himself on numerous occasions. A threat assessment is to be done when/if a student makes a threat toward someone at school- it has to be current and difficult child has made not threats to anyone at school, or bomb threats, or anything like that ever but certainly not recently. Now, they can do a risk assessment, which would be to determine if they think he at-risk for that. she didn't suggest that but difficult child's therapist said he thinks that is the way she approached her whole report, so in her mind, she has done a risk assessment and found difficult child is a high-risk for this when he is released. She was supposed to be doing a triennial review, not a risk asssessment. So first issue is, we need a REAL report for the IEP, second issue, if they want to do a risk assessment then they need someone who can keep facts straight, consider timelines, and be objective. If they determine difficult child is a risk, then he needs to be in Residential Treatment Center (RTC) not home because he would be just as much of a risk to me and others in the community as he would be at school. HELLO that's why he is incarcerated- they are not supposed to release him until they feel he is no longer a risk.
So, in my heart of hearts, I believe that difficult child is, at times, a threat to himself foremost. I feel he possibly could be a threat to me again. I don't think it's completely impossible that he could ever do something like that at school, but I think it is unlikely and certainly not justified to treat him like it's almost inevitable. I believe treating him like that might almost drive him to it.
I do think threats should be taken seriously. The Threat Assesssment at school is for threat of violence towards others only- not suicide though. What concerns me most is that this sd psychiatric has written things in a way where if a threat assessment is done (which starts out by a principal determining if a student was serious about the threat or just mouthing off), the sd says ALL difficult child's threats should be taken as serious. I guess I'm looking at it like difficult child is coming out of Department of Juvenile Justice where he's had to let other kids know he won't take BS from them. If someone is giving him a hard time at the next school and he says "don't mess with me- I won't take it- I will hurt you back" or something to that effect, and they do a threat assessment on difficult child, the principal is going to be sitting there thinking "I have a report from a sd psychiatric at Department of Juvenile Justice that says I need to consider this serious instead of just mouthing off".
I like the idea of getting something in the IEP. Fortunately, the IEP team has already over-ridden a couple of suggestions from the sd psychiatric, which tells me that the actual sschool personnel don't necessarily see difficult child in the same light as her either. I am hoping that since difficult child will get a good report from his last home school and this school, both behaviorally and in general attitude and effort, that if there is an IEE that doesn't support the sd psychiatric's report and the IEP is not following the recommendations and the IEP is working, then maybe the next school won't put that much weight on it.
There could be a benefit in the Threat Assessment though- if things are handled carefully in wording in the IEP and next report- if difficult child should ever get to a threatening manner again to me even, I'm wondering if this could lead to the school placing him in a Residential Treatment Center (RTC)- instead of the typical alternative school where there isn't much education or effective methods. I'm going to mention this to difficult child's therapist since he'll be doing the IEE. He told me we would meet privately before he does his evaluation.
But, if difficult child ever did really threaten to do bodily injury to another kid- especially someone at school and I or anyone thought he meant it, I would want an evaluation for psychiatric hospital admittance immediately. It just seems absurd to me that 1) it would be school personnel determining if he's really a serious threat, 2) all they do if he is, is suspend or expel him then wait for a sd psychiatric to get involved to determine what placement he gets when he comes back to school. For one thing, if he's really a threat, kicking him out of school doesn't make anyone safer it just covers the sd's rear. So, I would want him in a psychiatric hospital, then placement in a Residential Treatment Center (RTC) by the sd if he's ever really a threat the public. But I don't think the verbal threats he made several years ago and the incident with me justify that right now. I'm also going to mention to the sd people that the mental health profs involved (past and future) have always known about concerning incedences, including thoise threats when they happened, and if they had thought difficult child was a serious threat, they would have had to report it.
The only person who seems to think my son is becoming the next Cho is this sd psychiatric. Personally, I think the state people have given sd psychiatric's and maybe some other sd personnel (principals for instance) enough training to become paranoid but not enough to be objective. Really, who turns "difficult child threatened to hurt another boy with a knife" into "difficult child had a serious act of aggression toward another child"? Obviously, she made an assumption, assumed the worst, and documented it as truth. Who would want that person determining if your kid is really a threat or what placement they should be in? And because this is a psycho-educational report, it will be in difficult child's file forever now.
Now that I think about it, kids released from Department of Juvenile Justice have to meet with the sd personnel, PO, and some sd team of people to get accpeted back in a sd and the sd dettermines placement. The current school personnel already told me that difficult child won't have any problem getting accepted/placed in mainstream school because she said they are all advocating for it and because difficult child was not considered a behavior problem at his last home school and did not get into Department of Juvenile Justice due to an incident at school and was not suspended or expelled when he entered Department of Juvenile Justice.
