From the Course: Assess & Progress
Stopping Threats & Dangerous Students:

I like some of Taylor Swift’s songs, but I would never pay to go to one of her concerts. Every student has had lots of teachers, but only a few students become teachers. Everybody has been influenced by school shooters, but only a handful ever become school shooters. 

This is the difference between influenced and inspired. 

When you’re doing a student safety assessment, you have to figure out whether the student has simply been influenced by violence or whether they have become inspired to commit it. If you get this wrong, your risk level will be too low therefore making your intervention, management, and growth plan too limited. 

Some of the ways you can tell the difference: 

Here is the simplest way to remember it:
Influence touches them. Inspiration transforms them. 

A student influenced by shooters may watch, read, or talk about them.
A student inspired by shooters begins to imitate, identify, or model themselves after them...the risk goes way up.  

School shootings are a worldwide phenomenon.
Students do lockdown drills as a direct countermeasure to it. It’s expected that it would influence their lives…but nothing more. 

Inspiration means they’ve found meaning in the violence—something in it solves a problem, fills a void, or gives them a role they didn’t have before. That makes them a potential threat. 

Your job must be to determine which one it is quickly, then interrupt it fast, and build a plan strong enough to pull them out of it. 

The moment you know whether it’s influence or inspiration, the path forward becomes clear, your response becomes focused, and you have a chance to turn danger into safety.