[eeza]

I feel like my admin are afraid of getting sued and are tiptoeing around some of the students who are at-risk for hurting themselves and others.

My admin stated that we could consider calling the parents of a student who is clearly at-risk and, if the parents take the child home, then they parents then become liable. This scares me because what if the student goes through with the act, the parents can say "well, the school sent him home". I err on the side of caution and call in the police and have them determine whether or not the student needs to be assessed at the hospital.

What are your thoughts?

[GraceKrispy]

I'm with you on this one. I would not feel comfortable sending a child who is at a high level of risk (some sense of a plan for hurting self) without covering my bases with an eval. I agree with you that the culpability may fall on the school if they were aware and made no effort to address.

Plus, what if the home situation is the thing that pushes the child over, or a parental situation is at the root of the problem (e.g., abuse)?

[Star Light]

We call the parents to pick up the child at the end of the day, unless they are in crisis mode. We inform the parents, do a safety contract, and highly recommend an emergency eval by a mental health professional. However, our district says we can't *make* them get one.

[cardnialteach]

We call the parents if we have an at risk student. We also have a meeting with that parent and the student. Last year I had a girl that had been texting a friend say tonight was the night and she had the gun ready. Luckily the friend showed her mom and she then contacted me. I called the parents at home and asked if they could visibly see their daughter. I told them what I had been told and they assured me it was a false claim. I then informed my principal at the time. He drove out to the house and they had a 3 hour discussion with the parents and the child. The next time I spoke to the parent she said after I hung up she asked her daughter and she said yes that is what she had said. Mom was very beside herself.

[eeza]

That is so interesting to hear the different procedures. Like GraceKrispy said, I think that talking to the parents can be iffy because they might be the source of the issue. We do call the parents but after the officer has made the call whether or not to 5150 the child.