What Happens After We Identify a Threat?

What Happens After We Identify a Threat?

What happens after we identify a student in crisis?

In this episode of The Sound Off on School Safety, Michele Gay sits down with Sammie Wicks — nationally recognized practitioner and researcher in behavioral threat assessment and targeted violence prevention — to explore the gap between recognizing concerning behavior and actually preventing violence.

With experience spanning law enforcement, juvenile justice, and community-based intervention, Sammie brings a systems-level perspective to prevention. He focuses not only on identifying concerning behavior early, but on what must follow: coordinated action, meaningful intervention, and shared responsibility across the systems that serve youth.

Throughout the conversation, he challenges a critical assumption in school safety: that identifying a concern is enough. Instead, he makes the case that prevention depends on what happens next — how teams respond, how systems communicate, and whether there is real alignment between schools, justice, and mental health partners.

Together, Michele and Sammie explore what effective intervention looks like in practice, why accountability must exist alongside support, and how disconnected systems can unintentionally create risk. They highlight how alignment across teams and agencies can strengthen response, disrupt pathways toward violence, and keep students connected to the help they need.

Watch the full episode below: