Northland Pioneer College can act to remove, on an emergency basis, a Title IX Respondent entirely, or partially, from its education program or employment activities, when an individualized safety and risk analysis has determined that an immediate threat to the physical health or safety of any individual justifies such a removal.
An emergency removal is not tantamount to a determination of responsibility or a sanction. NPC may remove a Respondent on an emergency basis whether a grievance process is underway or not.
For students who are removed on an emergency basis, alternative coursework options should be pursued to ensure as minimal an academic impact as possible on the removed party.
NPC will implement the least restrictive emergency actions possible in light of the circumstances and individual safety concerns. As determined by the Title IX Coordinator, these actions could include a variety of supportive measures. Examples of supportive measures include, but are not limited to:
- temporarily reassigning an employee,
- restricting a student’s or employee’s access to or use of facilities or equipment,
- allowing a student to withdraw or take grades of incomplete, without financial or grade penalty,
- authorizing an administrative leave,
- suspending a student’s participation in extracurricular activities,
- suspending a student’s employment,
- suspending a student’s participation in student organizational leadership, or
- suspending a student’s participation in intercollegiate/intramural athletics.
If the least restrictive emergency action is removal from the campus, the Title IX Coordinator must initiate an individualized safety and risk analysis.
Threat Assessment
Threat assessment is the process of assessing the actionability of violence by an individual against another person or group following the issuance of a direct or conditional threat. A Violence Risk Assessment (VRA) is a broader term used to assess any potential violence or danger, regardless of the presence of a vague, conditional, or direct threat.
The implementation of VRAs require specific training and are typically conducted by psychologists, clinical counselors, social workers, case managers, law enforcement officers, student conduct officers, and/or other CARE Team (sometimes also known as CARE teams) members.
A VRA occurs in collaboration with the CARE Team, and must be understood as an on-going process, rather than a singular evaluation or meeting. A VRA is not an evaluation for an involuntary behavioral health hospitalization, nor is it a psychological or mental health assessment.
A VRA assesses the risk of actionable violence, often with a focus on targeted/predatory escalations, and is supported by research from the fields of law enforcement, criminology, human resources, and psychology.
When conducting a VRA, the assessor(s) use an evidence-based process consisting of:
- an appraisal of risk factors that escalate the potential for violence;
- a determination of stabilizing influences that reduce the risk of violence;
- a contextual analysis of violence risk by considering environmental circumstances, hopelessness, and suicidality; catalyst events; nature and actionability of threat; fixation and focus on target; grievance collection; and action and time imperative for violence; and
- the application of intervention and management approaches to reduce the risk of violence.
To assess an individual’s level of violence risk, the Title IX Coordinator will initiate the violence risk assessment process through the CARE Team. The CARE Team will assign a trained individual(s) to perform the assessment, according to the specific nature of the Title IX case.
The assessor will follow the process for conducting a violence risk assessment as outlined in the CARE Team manual and will rely on a consistent, research-based, reliable system that allows the for the operationalization of the risk levels.
Some examples of formalized approaches to the VRA process include: The NaBITA Risk Rubric,The Structured Interview for Violence Risk Assessment (SIVRA-35),The Extremist Risk Intervention Scale (ERIS),Looking Glass,Workplace Assessment of Violence Risk (WAVR-21),Historical Clinical Risk Management (HCR-20),and MOSAIC.
The VRA is conducted independently from the Title IX process, free from outcome pressure, but is informed by it. The individual(s) conducting the assessment will be trained to mitigate any bias and provide the analysis and findings in a fair and equitable manner.
The CARE Team or threat team’s member(s) conducts a VRA process and makes a recommendation to the Title IX Coordinator as to whether the VRA indicates there is a substantial, compelling, and/or immediate risk to health and/or safety of an individual or the community.
