Preventing
School Violence and
Reducing
the Frequency of Disturbing Threats
Mark
D. Lerner, Ph.D.
Chairman, National Center for Crisis Management
President, American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress
Introduction
Not long ago
the most severe problems encountered in our schools were students running
in the halls, making excessive noise, cutting a line, talking out-of-turn,
chewing gum or violating a dress code.
Today, we are faced with an increase in violence including assaults and gang activity. We are seeing an increase in the frequency of substance abuse, self-mutilation, suicide, abandonment of newborn babies, and serious injuries and deaths from automobile accidents. We are also contending with new types of violence including terrorist attacks, hostage-taking, snipers, murders, sexual predators, "hit lists," threatening graffiti, bomb scares and real bombs.
Following, is a perspective on how we may prevent school violence and reduce the frequency of disturbing threats.
What are the causes of school-based violence?
A wide spectrum of traumatic events are impacting our nation's schools. And, as a consequence, school systems are being charged with the responsibility of responding to school-based crises. In recent years, districts have been scrambling to develop comprehensive crisis response plans (see www.CrisisInfo.org/SchoolCrisisResponse). We no longer question if a school will be faced with a tragedy, but when.
Many factors contribute to the causes of school violence. Research is helping us to understand the relationship between violent television programs, movies, music lyrics and violent behavior. Additionally, the interactive nature of violent computer and video games is being investigated. We hear about the availability of guns and other weapons and we cannot ignore the data. During the last decade, nearly 80% of all violent deaths in schools were caused by guns (The Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence).
There is a dramatic increase in alcohol and substance use among our children, peer pressure and gang involvement. We are learning about children who are tormented, teased and bullied, and then go on to harm themselves and others. We are seeing the effects of divorce, parents working long hours and an absence of parental supervision, training and example-setting. Today, there are relaxed curfews, a lack of respect for authority and a lack of family involvement with schools. There is a changing family structure as well - with a large number of single parent families, grandparents and extended family living in the home.
Today, we are also seeing a growing trend of violence related to race and/or religion. This is particularly disturbing in light of the fact that diversity in America is rapidly increasing. The extent to which these variables are related to the quantitative and qualitative changes in violent school-based crises will become more apparent with time and with further empirical investigation.
The inevitability of illness, accidents and loss may be accepted and even anticipated by schools that often view themselves as microcosms of our world. But why is there such a dramatic increase in deliberately-caused tragedies - those of intentional human design?
I believe that at the very core of our problem is a fundamental communication breakdown in families - the result, in large part, of an increasingly digital and mechanized world. We are spending less time communicating, teaching and modeling appropriate behavior with our children - we are losing the battle to the proliferation of electronic media in a rapidly changing, digital world.
At the breakfast table, newspapers and television offer a daily dose of violence. And, at dinner time, our children leave the dinner table or family room, opting for the new era in violent television, video and computer games, and Internet chat rooms. We used to know where our children went when they left our homes. Today, we don't know where they are when they are in their bedrooms!
Far too many children lack interpersonal communication, coping and problem-solving skills to meet the challenges of our new world - one reason why an increasing number of them act-out feelings of anger and frustration in dangerous attention-seeking ways, "self-medicate" with alcohol and other substances, and commit suicide at a higher rate than ever before.
How
can we prevent school violence?
Today, our school systems are investing in expanded security forces, the installation of metal detectors and surveillance cameras, hand-held communication devices, "panic buttons," and computer "fire walls." Safety audits are becoming standard operating procedure. Although there are certainly benefits gained from taking these mechanical steps, we must address the root of the problem.
We need to help our children and adolescents to develop and enhance their communication and problem-solving skills. We must teach them how to actively listen and to empathize when relating with others. We must help our children to understand the importance of articulating their feelings about themselves and for others, and to know that it is okay to err on the side of caution when expressing concerns about others. We must regularly remind them that they can turn to their parents and/or school support personnel who will take the time to listen and respond to them. We must invest in the development of "people skills."
Far too often our children hear of disturbing ideas or plans prior to a tragedy and they do not know how to respond. It is not until the aftermath of a disaster that we see survivors interviewed and we hear them describe how the perpetrator had, in some way, suggested impending doom. In cases of adolescent suicide, more than 80% of kids who commit suicide tell someone, in some way, that they are going to end their life. Our children do not know what to do or where to turn with critical information.
We must work toward improving communication, through a multimodal approach, in order to prevent violent school tragedies. We can address emotional, cognitive, social, behavioral and physiological factors. For instance, we can help our children and adolescents to identify physiological changes in their bodies, which may precede or coincide with feelings of frustration and anger. We can help them to understand which of their behaviors/actions cause others to become frustrated and angry. We can teach them to become aware of and to identify negative self-statements - cognitions that generate feelings of frustration and anger. And, we can help our children to learn to replace self-defeating statements with positive coping statements. Behaviorally, we can model and espouse appropriate moral behavior, set limits and be consistent with our behavior. Ultimately, we can teach our children to show compassion and sincerity in relating with others.
We must help our children to understand that conflict is a natural part of interpersonal relationships. When we handle conflict well, it presents an opportunity to learn, to better understand ourselves and to generate creative solutions. When we handle conflict poorly, it can lead to violence.
We must help our children to make more adaptive, goal-directed decisions when faced with feelings of frustration. For example, we can teach them that it is okay to walk away from altercations or to take a few moments to "cool down." We can teach our children to express themselves assertively, to implement relaxation techniques, and to utilize conflict resolution and peer mediation skills. Interestingly, when we ask children and adolescents what they believe may help to reduce the frequency of school-based tragedies, they indicate that there needs to be more constructive opportunities for _expression_ of feelings. On the other hand, we must keep in mind that conflict resolution techniques and peer mediation programs presuppose conflict.
How can we prevent school violence? We must reach our children when they are very young and invest in developing communication and problem-solving skills.
Today, we must view all members of the school family as being "at risk" and become aware of the "early warning signs" to identify individuals who may be at greater risk for engaging in violent behavior (http://www.crisisinfo.org/schoolcrisisresponse/atriskviolence.pdf).
How
can we reduce the Frequency of Disturbing Threats?
In the aftermath of highly publicized tragedies in our nation's schools, we experience a dramatic increase in the frequency of disturbing threats. Through opportunities in consulting, I have gained a greater appreciation of the impact of such threats in our schools. For example, when a bomb threat is made by telephone, e-mailed or written on a bathroom wall, there is an enormous impact on the school community. The potential need to evacuate a school building under such circumstances presents a host of complex decisions for school administrators. Ensuring the safety of the school family and preventing further disruption of the educational process is crucial.
Many feelings are generated from observing bomb-sniffing dogs comb a school. I recall one principal's description of how traumatized he, his students and staff were after standing outside of the building for nearly two hours while dogs searched the building. He indicated that when they reentered the school everyone was anxious, hypervigilant and startled by every closing locker.
As I spoke with administrators, I learned of other disturbing threats such as "hit lists" and threatening graffiti. For example, the traumatic stress endured by fourteen students, teachers and school administrators specifically named on a poster that was placed in the entrance area of one high school was profound. The poster described how each of them would be harmed. Furthermore, the fear that was experienced by another school family after the statement "Everyone will die on June 4th" had a far-reaching impact upon the entire community. After the building principal informed parents of the threat, nearly all of the eighteen hundred students were absent from school - many roamed the streets of the community.
Understanding what may have caused or contributed to the surge of disturbing threats in our nation's schools in the wake of well-publicized tragedies may help to mitigate against similar behavior in the future.
The reasons why some students choose to make bomb threats, develop "hit lists," or write threatening graffiti are complex, and ultimately empirical investigation will help us to understand the relationship between these threats and such variables as domestic violence, sexual abuse, substance abuse, chronic teasing and tormenting, bullying, etc. Following is my theoretical perspective based upon many years of clinical experience in working with children and adolescents as well as my interpretation of extant literature.
There are a significant number of young people who are feeling alone and powerless in our rapidly changing world. When these individuals observe the tremendous and overwhelming attention following highly-publicized dramatic events, many of them identify with the aggressor(s). They may fantasize about an opportunity to overcome feelings of aloneness, inadequacy, weakness and powerlessness. They envision themselves acting-out and perhaps overcompensate for these dystonic feelings. Fortunately, relatively few act upon these violent impulses with significant magnitude. Apparently there is some impulse control which prevents them from going to the extent that perpetrators of violent mass casualty incidents ultimately manifest. However, in their minds, they see an opportunity to take action, of a lesser magnitude, and still draw a great deal of attention.
As I reflect upon disturbing threats experienced in our schools, I ask myself why some schools experience many threats, why others experience few, and why others seem to escape such experiences. I hypothesize that the climate established by the school staff and administration is directly related to the frequency of disturbing threats.
Educators must be careful not to challenge disturbed young people with statements like, "Our school is a safe place and we will not experience the kinds of events that you heard about yesterday..." Such statements may serve to create a double bind - a challenge for these individuals. They may incite these students to try to disprove authority figures, to make themselves feel more powerful and to help them to compensate for their feelings of inadequacy and weakness. Furthermore, educators that ignore the highly-publicized tragedies occurring in our nation's schools are missing a critical opportunity to help young people articulate disturbing thoughts and feelings, and to learn more adaptive coping strategies.
What can we do to decrease the frequency of disturbing threats? If indeed the "type" of individual or individuals who generate threats are trying to overcompensate for feelings of aloneness, inadequacy, weakness and powerlessness, we must work toward helping these young people to understand that the effect that they are trying to achieve by making a threat (i.e., to overcompensate for these disturbing feelings) will not result in the attainment of their perceived goal (e.g., to feel more powerful). Rather, the result of the threat may likely cause them to be arrested, feel very alone while incarcerated, more inadequate, weaker and truly powerless. If in fact we focus our attention on helping young people to understand and observe the CONSEQUENCES of being caught for making disturbing threats, the frequency of such threats may be dramatically reduced.
How can we focus our attention on the consequences of being caught? The responsibility here lies at a number of levels. For example, legislation could be enacted that would make reporting bomb threats a felony in all states. In addition to prosecuting perpetrators, these students could face significant school-related consequences including expulsion. Schools could establish clearly understood policies whereby all lost time due to disturbing threats would have to be made-up. Parents could be held financially responsible for the municipal costs of responding to threats. The media could invest more attention in showing alleged perpetrators being led in handcuffs to police vans, and less time on pictures of adolescent killers sitting and smiling among their peers.
The bottom line is that we can take steps to help young people to understand the consequences of disturbing threats by focusing attention not on the glorification of such acts, but on the reality of their actions.
Conclusion
It is important to understand what factors may be causing school-based tragedies as well as the thoughts of those who make disturbing threats. Ultimately, research will help us to understand the causative factors and the effects of specific intervention strategies. However, like many events in a rapidly shifting zeitgeist, we must take initial thoughtful, realistic and logical steps to respond to the problems that we are facing in our schools by developing effective prevention and crisis management strategies.
I invite you to attend my upcoming presentation, Managing School-Based Crises, to be held on November 17, 2006 at the Hilton, Long Island/Huntington (see http://www.crisisinfo.org/schoolcrisisresponse/conference.htm). Alternatively, please visit http://www.crisisinfo.org/nccm/biomarklerner.htm to learn about on-site presentations and workshops. By reaching our school families early, before, during and in the wake of a crisis, we can ultimately keep members of our school family functioning and reduce the likelihood of ongoing emotional suffering.