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At the School Board Meeting of September 6, 2023, the Honorable School Board Chair Mari Tere Rojas proffered Good Cause agenda item H-12, directing the Superintendent of Schools to develop a comprehensive parental component to inform and address “red flag” warnings and the consequences of violent threats to schools, students, and staff, which may include consultation with M-DCPS Mental Health Services, the Parent Academy, Miami-Dade Council PTA/PTSA, the Educational Excellence School Advisory Councils (EESAC), Miami-Dade Schools Police, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, faith-based organizations.
Recently, during the start of the 2023-24 school year in Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS), there have been a number of hoax threats which have created alarming concerns to school communities. It is clear that parents must play a pivotal role in recognizing smaller, incremental changes in youth behavior. Parents understand the responsible behavior of their children as exemplary citizens in our society, and they must understand and be aware that the spreading and fueling of violent threats are serious offenses that not only jeopardize school safety but also the personal and legal consequences their children will face and the impact these will have for them the rest of their lives. Parents work closely with schools, and they must become a critical and fundamental partner in the solution.
Recognizing that it may not be unusual for students to demonstrate some questionable or inappropriate behaviors, “red flag” behaviors are those doubtful, suspicious, or inappropriate behaviors that go beyond what may seem normal or reasonable. “Red flag” behaviors may be present through noteworthy change in actions, behaviors which regularly may interfere with the overall classroom environment, written and comments endorsing violence or unusual interest in violence, notable change in academic performance, indirectly or direct threats in writings or verbalizations, anger management problems, threats to others, appearance or expression of suicidal thoughts or feelings of hopelessness, among others.
