The unending need to improve school-based mental health services
By John Carlson
Less than a year ago, the school shooting tragedy unfolded at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. A series of unfortunate circumstances and missed clues aligned in ways unimaginable. The result was a horrific event that was difficult to predict—despite important knowledge that had been gleaned from a number of recent school shootings.
It is a part of human nature to believe that such rare and tragic events won’t happen to us, that they won’t happen to our own children and families, and that they won’t impact those we care for in our classrooms and buildings. Only recently have schools begun to do drills in preparation for an active shooter scenario. Fire, tornado and now intruder drills are commonplace within our school systems. These drills clearly helped to save lives in Connecticut.
As a mental health professional who works closely with school-aged children, their families, schools and communities, gun violence and trauma in schools is an all-too-familiar and sad reality permeating many facets of my occupation. Yet, this incident was different from any that I have read about or experienced in over 20 years of providing psychological services to school-aged populations. Not only did the details and circumstances differ in many ways from prior school shootings, this one was personal for me. Members of my extended family were in the building that fateful morning. They were physically unharmed, yet they and those close to them will forever be changed.
Coping with reality
I am confident that the changes my family members experience will be primarily positive and that some type of greater good will come out of being intertwined in this tragedy. Yet, the battle between the positive and negative effects on the human condition is a tough one to fight after such a cruel event, as history clearly demonstrates. We know that important biological changes occur in those who have been traumatized, and even more so in those who have experienced repeated trauma. The balance between psychology and biology can be a struggle for many but especially for those who are coping with this type of horrific and random event. Fortunately, we also know that humans are extremely adaptive, and that biology can be altered or reversed with appropriate treatment and care.
We also wish for good outcomes for the hundreds of others in that building who are victims of this tragedy—they were family members, friends and schoolmates of those killed. As it has been widely reported in the media, many were directly victimized, despite being a good distance from the active shooter. Having to listen to the broadcasted sounds of what was transpiring via the public address system during those minutes in and near the main entrance to their learning environment must have been both confusing and terrifying.
Coping with the reality of what they heard, on top of the fate of those around them, may pose a long journey toward healing for some of these victims. Some are likely to be currently struggling with daily functioning. Some may show little symptoms or signs of challenge for months and maybe years. Others may never reveal discomfort or typical signs of victimization. It is important to remember that response to trauma is as individualized as one’s own development and upbringing.
Addressing mental health
We must remember there are thousands of others who are indirect victims of tragedies like this one. Sadly, the events of 9/11 demonstrate there will be many more “delayed” trauma victims in the years ahead. Parents, siblings and relatives of victims will be challenged to find meaning and purpose from this unfortunate event that so intrusively impacted their loved ones.
First responders and investigators who possess direct knowledge of the details and images of the scene are likely to experience their own emotional and cognitive reactions. Mental health professionals working in and around Newtown too will need to find ways to cope with symptoms of anxiety and/or depression that are likely to emerge as a result of secondary exposure to the trauma histories of their clients. The far-reaching mental health effects of this tragic December morning in 2012 will not be fully realized for many years to come.
What school or community is next to experience the unthinkable? Mass killings within schools are rare but history clearly shows they happen. The Bath, Mich. school disaster in 1927 demonstrated how an adult associated with the district could seek and get revenge on many innocent children and adults, all in the name of perceived injustice. The University of Texas massacre in 1966 and the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007 showed how a distraught and vengeful college student can act out aggression and anger on people across campus. The Columbine High School massacre in 1999 showed the unthinkable can be carried out by two teenage classmates who brought premeditated horror to their school building, peers and community.
And the massacre in Newtown, Conn. revealed that a young adult who was described to be relatively isolated can exert violent, vile behavior on his own mother, young schoolchildren and their caretaking adults—all within his own community.
Warning signs
Each of the perpetrators of these school massacres took their own life or had planned in advance to do so. The act of suicide gives a public window into one’s extreme inner turmoil, and the inability to distance oneself from feelings of hopelessness, despair and/or feelings of helplessness. It is this inner, covert thinking (commonly thought of as mental health functioning) that needs refined attention in schools. Not only can one’s mental health create a barrier to the learning process, it can also wreak havoc on the learning community and classroom itself.
Another common thread that links these five school massacres is irrational thinking, faulty beliefs, deficient empathy and inhumane actions on the part of the killer. Access to guns was a clear variable present in each of these tragedies. Balancing the personal rights of individuals with the need for public safety will continue to require much attention and critical examination. Schools were created in part to socialize children and to reinforce societal norms. Bringing violence to a community of learners is a clear sign of abnormal behavior and a disregard for those societal norms. Such behavior must be prevented and dealt with appropriately.
Like suicidal thoughts, perceived injustice or an obsession with bringing justice onto others may be audible only to the mind of the beholder. Wishing to harm oneself, being fixated on harming another and a general disregard for the well-being of others are mental health issues that all of society needs to be concerned about. An attempt to “hear” these silent thoughts ruminating in the minds of others is a challenge that all school personnel should heed.
Many times there are signs and signals that one’s mind holds these disturbing and intrusive thoughts. In the majority of school shooting incidents, the message had gotten out to others; but some failed to act on those messages or brushed them off as just talk. There are times when the threatening message is shared with others at a distance, such as through posts to websites. Rarely does an individual fail to disclose some type of brewing trouble or pending aggression toward others. The best and most effective preventative action can occur through attentive listening and keen observation of behavior. Such actions of listening, watching, reflecting and acting on concerns can best be taken with those that we know or those we wish to know better. Student-teacher relationships are an essential component to preventing school violence.
Students who have few or strained relationships with peers or adults must be identified. Bullying prevention and mechanisms by which bullying behavior is closely observed, addressed and eliminated is essential to diminish strained peer relationships. To examine student-teacher relationships, a simple review of the enrollment roster to identify those who might not have established relationships with adults in the building can be completed. Such an approach requires little time or money to complete.
Close monitoring of discipline referrals and collaboration with law enforcement in the local community can help to identify students who are behaving outside of the range of normal behavior or societal standards. Working closely with parents, school personnel can identify those students who demonstrate acute changes in behavior. Unexpected declines in grades, withdrawal from peers, increased substance use, unexpected trouble with the law or drastic changes in mood or personality are important red flags that should be attended to and addressed. Showing concern or discreetly expressing one’s concern to another is an important part of the human relationship.
Plentiful resources
Efforts to prevent and treat trauma in school can’t wait on science to uncover definitive truths. Instead, we must do the best that we can with the information we currently have. Refinement of that knowledge will come with time, and we must be courageous to engage in the best course of action today—knowing tomorrow may bring different light to our current well-intentioned actions.
For those impacted by a school shooting, the odds were 100 percent that such a rare and random event would happen to them. School shooting victims and other victims of school- or community-based trauma don’t want to hear about the rarity of these events. Nor do they wish to hear statistics that indicate the rates of school and community violence have actually declined since the early 1990s.
Those working in schools must be prepared and ready for violence to occur within their learning communities. Traumatic events do and will happen to school-aged children and their caregivers. Gun violence does and will happen near or in schools. School personnel should be prepared to act to stop the series of unfortunate events from transpiring—and be ready to deal with the reality when they occur.
Efforts to prevent school shootings and violence must continually adapt to new details that emerge from past and future events. Concurrently, mental health treatment is paramount and resources must be fully brought into action in both the short and long-term treatment for direct and indirect victims of school-based crises.
School trauma resources
National Association of School Psychologists
American Psychological Association
National Education Association Health Information Network
Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress
Read more about specific ways you can help the Newtown community at www.sandyhookpromise.org.
Please consider sharing the positive changes that you or your school have made as a result of the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy with John Carlson.
About the Author:
John S. Carlson is a professor and director of the School Psychology doctoral program at Michigan State University. He is a Licensed and Nationally Certified School Psychologist, and serves as a member of the American Psychological Association (Division 16) Working Group on Mental Health Issues in Schools.