On Thursday, May 16, 2024, our San Diego County School Threat Assessment Team, led by our District Attorney’s office, was honored and grateful to receive an Award of Excellence in The Pursuit of Justice from the Department of Justice. We were qualified in the category of Community Impact. Tara K. McGrath, J.D., our current United States Attorney for the Southern District of California, bestowed this Award upon this group. Our team members received individual recognition by having our names read out loud, and each of us was presented with a framed certificate. (See below for Dr. Lipson’s certificate.)
What we accomplished was presented in our brief introduction. As a group, we gradually walked to the front of the gathering, standing shoulder to shoulder, and then, in closing, there was applause. I am grateful for my colleagues who continue to support our community in national violence prevention efforts. Most of us are also members of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals (ATAP) and assist each other as needed. I am listing my team members’ names in gratitude for the results that they made possible and our work ahead: Deputy District Attorney Andrija Lopez – the organizer of our team, Wes Albers, Dr. Laura Vleugels, Dr. Manny Tau, John Czajkowski, Detective Sergeant Eric Seiter, Tim Ware, Tracey Schmidt, and Special Agent Lauritz Austensen. I am blessed to work together with these colleagues whose company, wisdom, and sense of humor provide buoyancy arising from the tidal moving swirl of darkness we address and face together.
Following is the statement that was read about our dedicated team: “San Diego County’s School Threat Assessment Team is a collaborative juggernaut of committed threat assessment professionals who work tirelessly to identify, mitigate, and manage threats to our schools to prevent the deadly violence that has become all too commonplace across the country. San Diego is not immune to this danger. In fact, in addition to multiple school shootings that have occurred in the District, between 2018-2023, San Diego law enforcement agencies submitted approximately 259 school threat incidents to the District Attorney’s Office to review for formal charges. While scary, it is also encouraging because studies have found that targeted school violence is preventable when communities identify warning signs and intervene. The incident reports provide an opportunity for law enforcement and community stakeholders to prevent school violence. The San Diego County School Threat Assessment Team meets monthly to identify methods for mitigating and managing these threats. Together, they leverage the expertise of each member — psychiatrists, psychologists, educators, security experts, law enforcement, prosecutors — to find solutions to keep our children and their educators safe. The team is proactive and creative. They solve problems and find solutions. This area of law enforcement is new and challenging, but essential. The citizens of our district are safer because of the work of this team, which is a model for the country”.