Behavioral Assessment Team

Wake Tech established a Behavioral Assessment Team (BAT) to keep the campus community safe. The cross-functional team helps identify, assess and manage disruptive and threatening – or potentially threatening – behaviors and situations.

The BAT, which includes representatives from all Wake Tech campuses, works collaboratively and proactively, encouraging students, faculty and staff to report concerns about behaviors and situations to allow for early intervention. The team uses threat-assessment tools provided by the National Behavioral Intervention Team Association to determine appropriate courses of action when concerns are reported.

Reporting concerns

Call 911

If someone appears to be an immediate threat
to himself or herself or to others.

Students and employees should report non-emergency behaviors or situations of concern by completing a Behavior of Concern & Threat Reporting form.

All concerns reported to the BAT will be treated as confidential by team members and protected in accordance with the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and other applicable laws. Information will be released to authorized officials only, as required by law or permitted by law under exigent circumstances.

Concerning behaviors

The following behaviors warrant the submission of a Behavior of Concern & Threat Reporting form:

  • Threatening words or actions, writings or online postings or transmissions (clearly transmitting a desire or plan to harm self or others)
  • Fascination with weapons
  • Obvious signs of self-injury (cutting, burning, etc.)
  • Acts motivated by hatred or discrimination
  • Paranoid statements or behaviors
  • Descriptions of fantasies that include violence
  • Interest in current or past shootings and violent events in the news
  • Extreme or sudden personality changes
  • Excessive absenteeism or any dramatic change in a student’s normal attendance pattern
  • Unusual interest in the police, the military or terrorist activities and events
  • Odd or aberrant behavior, such as "acting out"

If in doubt, submit a form to the BAT, which will assess the situation fully and determine an appropriate response. In many cases, students who violate the Student Code of Conduct will also exhibit behaviors of concern, and vice versa.

Signs of distress

A distressed student is one suffering from anxiety, sorrow or pain. Loud and disruptive behavior can be a sign of distress; however, more subtle signs may go unnoticed:

  • Excessive absences from or tardiness to class
  • Usual patterns of behavior change
  • Withdrawing from class participation and interaction with friends
  • Lack of concentration, even sleeping, in class
  • Decline in academic performance
  • Verbally or physically aggressive and easily agitated
  • Start to dominate discussions
  • More emotional in responses
  • Incessant talk about violence, threats or death
  • Speaking or writing about doing harm to self or others or make disparaging remarks about self
  • Giving away possessions
  • Gaining or losing an excessive amount of weight
  • Noticeable changes in personal hygiene or dress
  • Changes in speech pattern, such as rapid, disjointed or fragmented speech or speech not based on reality
  • Red, swollen or bloodshot eyes
  • Appear to be sad or extremely tired