3 Questions in the Wake of the Sandy Hook School Shooting
Children and parents should never have to experience the pain and suffering that was brought down on them in Newtown, Connecticut. What went wrong?
By all accounts, Sandy Hook Elementary School had appropriate safety measures in place. Doors were locked when class started. There was a system to check visitors before they were allowed in the building. Teachers were well trained and knew what to do in this type of emergency. There had been lockdown drills and safe places were established for children and teachers to go. Everything was done right.
There was nothing the school could have done differently to prevent this horrendous incident. No one could have predicted that a person with mental health issues, armed with an assault rifle and two other semi-automatic weapons, would shoot out the glass and force his way into the school. This is neither the type of school nor a community where a security guard is needed at the entrance. The safety measures were appropriate. The staff implemented them, went into lockdown mode, and protected their children the best they could — sometimes acting as human shields.
There are three things that we must ask ourselves as a nation after this tragedy:
- Are schools developing and updating safety plans on a regular basis with the involvement of parents, teachers, and the community?
- Are we providing sufficient mental health services in our schools and communities — and had the shooter received such services, is it possible that this would have been avoided?
- Is it necessary to allow semi-automatic weapons in the hands of civilians?
Safety in schools
A good school safety plan is a detailed blueprint of procedures designed to keep children safe during normal school operations and in an emergency.
It should include such things as: the chain of command; where school safety agents normally stand; visitor-screening procedures; how to report an intruder; how to cover lunchrooms if staff are absent; and provisions for security before school, while classes are in session, and during after-school community programs.
Even the best safety plans are worthwhile only if a school community is familiar with their provisions. Staff and students should know clearly what to do in everyday situations — and during a crisis.
Every school should prepare a safety plan, review it annually, and update it as the school’s needs change. It should distribute a school safety handbook to all staff and parents annually. A strong board of education policy and adequate funding to support a school safety committee are necessary.
The very lives of our children are at stake.
Mental health services
What causes me the most concern is the emerging information about the shooter as a troubled individual. A full picture is not yet available, but reports suggest he had Asperger’s syndrome, had a history of difficulty getting along with classmates, was home schooled, and eventually dropped out of school. His mother reportedly was not pleased with the way his high school dealt with his disability, and this seems to be why she withdrew and homeschooled him. Often, children with Asperger’s syndrome are misunderstood, shunned, or bullied because of their different way of interpreting social interactions. If they are not taught how to improve their social interactive skills, and if other kids misunderstand and ostracize them, it can lead to frustration and anger.
Schools generally provide some level of services for students who experience mental health or other issues that generate from a disability. But through the consulting work I do with schools and my expert witness services with attorneys, I have found that it’s never enough — no matter whether the school is in an affluent community like Newtown or the inner city. The level of services depends on the school budget, which often depends on a community’s ability to support the budget. Poorer communities don’t provide much service.
Students who don’t get along with peers usually get branded troublemakers. Standard discipline — detention and suspension — without attempting to deal with the root issues leads only to despair for the student and continued problems in school. When troubled behavior repeats itself, there’s a need to find out what is causing this student to act out, help this student understand what drives his behavior, and take steps to change it. This isn’t always easy to do. When schools don’t have the baseline resources to even consider this kind of intervention, we are on the path to losing our kids and laying our children open to being hurt.
Parents don’t usually tell others about the trouble their child brings into the family. Families keep these secrets, and sometimes, frustration builds either to the Hook of giving up or dealing with the child in counterproductive ways. These parents need help. They need to understand why a child behaves in a way that causes others to be fearful of her. They need tools that will help them at least try to work effectively with a child so that their actions do not exasperate the problem behavior.
Parents also need to know that they can’t always do it alone, and that it’s okay to ask for help. They need to feel comfortable about seeking help, and they may need help paying for these services. We need to remove treatment barriers imposed by one’s type of insurance and by insurers’ level of payment to mental health professionals.
The very lives of our children are at stake.
Gun control
I’m not going to wade into the gun-control debate, other than to say that the Second Amendment was written at a time when the militia used muskets that took several minutes to reload — not semi-automatic rifles that spew dozens of bullets in a few seconds.
In this situation, a young man with a history of social-interactive problems and little, if any, mental health support, had access to his mother’s legally registered weapons — and acted on whatever compulsion or illness drove him. If the shooter, disturbed as he may have been, had not had access to that weapon, parents today would be thinking more about their child’s upcoming winter break than whether they are doing the right thing by even sending their child to school.
Is it necessary to allow semi-automatic weapons in the hands of our civilians?
The very lives of our children are at stake.
Healing
Newtown, Connecticut, will heal, but this horrible tragedy is a reminder that we have work to do. I would like our nation to remember that while schools are, by and large, safe places, it takes the involvement of all of us to make them so. I would like our nation to focus renewed energy on the provision of, and equitable funding for, mental health services to kids and parents. I would like our nation to have the courage to take real steps toward effective gun control.
Schools are safe places for our kids. Let’s make them even safer by focusing on what we can learn from this sadness.
atapeducation
Best article I’ve seen since the shootings.
Lisa Ford Berry
We as a country need to figure out how to do more with less, and the first step is admitting when we need help, and then having the resources to help. Excellent article
Dolores Dragan
As as educator for over forty years. I can only say that the teachers and administrators at Sandy Hook School performed above and beyond what we as teachers have been taught to do in a grave situation. Suggesting that guns and safety go hand in hand is to ignore that guns in a school can only lead to more tragedy . Some children have a curiosity about weapons which only poses more safety issues. Most of the shooting if not all have been committed by people with mental health issues. Walking New York City within a several block area you can hear people conversing with themselves on the streets as they are walking. There are thousands of sad souls put out of institutions and yes, there are shelters for the mentally ill in neighborhoods. . These poor needy souls walk and live among us. The major difference is these folks don’t have assault rifles. What would happen if they did. They have no money or resources to acquire one. What could happen if they did? Maybe nothing, Maybe a tragedy. All the shooters in schools were from middle and upper class families able to afford and purchase weapons. There are incidents, I was once accosted with a screwdriver and was able to move away safely and be on my way. I don’t think an assault rifle would have allowed that. I was waiting for a response from the NRA as to how they would maneuver their agenda around the tragic issue of Sandy Hook and was appalled yet not surprised that the answer was more guns. If holding an assault rifle makes one feel important and more like a “man” lets paint them all Pink or Lavender. Maybe the sales would drop. That’s a not a bad but a really ridiculous one, so is suggesting more guns in schools. .
David M. Benjamin, Ph.D.
The shootings at Sandy Hook were the saddest events I have experienced since 911 when people walked around with photos of their missing loved ones and asked complete strangers, “Have you seen my wife, (my father, my brother, my sister, etc.).” I cried like a baby then, and I cried again after the Sandy Hook incident.
As Ed pointed out, security was good at the school, and the shooter had to shoot out some windows to gain entry. Does that mean we need bullet-proof glass in doors? I don’t know. The killer’s mother took him to shooting ranges and introduced him to gun. Now why would you take an Autistic child know to have problems with impulse control and teach him how to shoot a gun? It is also possible that the young man also had more severe mental health problems, but this has not been confirmed, only alleged.
Today in the newsletter of the Mass Bar Assoc. they published the results of a survey that asked Do you think the shootings at Sandy Hook will pave the way for stronger gun control legislation? Only 35% said yes. I think we all agree, there is something very wrong in this country. Richie and Potsey have faded away and been replaced by angry, paranoid new age adults who still want to play cops and robbers, even though they are 45 now.
Lastly, did you know that only ~26% of Americans have graduated from college?
I am left asking the age old question, Quo vadamus?
David