On September 28, 2016, middle school counselor, Molly Hudgens, would be faced with the most difficult day of her 18-year career when a 14-year-old student, armed with a semi-automatic handgun, additional ammunition, and a plan to harm people on campus, came to her in the counseling department of a rural school In Pleasant View, Tennessee. He claimed that he came to her because she was “the only person who could talk him out of it.” Over the course of 90 minutes, Hudgens would convince the young man to relinquish the weapon with no shots fired and no lives lost. The incident would earn Hudgens the Congressional Medal of Honor’s Citizens Honor for a single act of heroism.
In this workshop, Hudgens, a 21-year veteran of education, guides the audience through the entire ninety minutes of the incident using pictures and her first-person account of that day. Designed to teach professionals how to recognize and respond to young people in crisis, Hudgens’ dissection of “The School Shooting that Never Happened” parallels an in-depth psychological study of school shooters with the behaviors and actions of the young man at her school for the year leading up to and the day of his incident. Hudgens’ explanation will demonstrate how 18 years of research into the psychological mindset of violent teenage offenders on campus prepared her to “Recognize the Red Flags” she used to save her life and that of others at her school that day…including the young man involved.
Participants will leave prepared to make changes to their crisis plans in order to include not only recognition of potential offenders and threat assessment tools, but also how to incorporate interventions through mental health counseling, student connectedness, and staff preparedness.
