How to Recognize School Violence Triggers

As many school districts experience tragic incidents of violence across the country, the epidemic seems to be spiraling out of control. Being proactive about researching and fixing these problems can help a community avoid getting sucked into the kind of mess that happens when administrators, teachers and others turn a blind eye to developing issues in a school.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

1. Find out about racial or class-based tensions that could affect the schools. As we see incidents of school violence or attempted violence, we also see flash points of conflict between groups of students or residents of a school district. Pointing these issues out early can lead to a fuller understanding of what kind of incidents may be likely to occur in a particular school.
2. Look at previous incidents. Check out accounts of incidents in the area, and also incidents across the country that could contribute to a new threat. Looking at the past is one way to prepare for the future.
3. Analyze issues like the school's funding. Schools with funding problems can become more vulnerable to violence situations, because of economic frustrations of students and others, and less money put into preventative measures like school resource officers or weapons screening.
4. Talk to faculty. The people with an ear to the ground at your school are the teachers, who spend their days inside the classrooms working with students. Apart from the school resource officer or security staff, teachers are another resource for learning more about existing problems or concerns within the school.
5. Diagnose mental problems of individual students early. Working with the guidance counseling staff at a school can help a community be proactive about preventing violence at a school by monitoring those students who seem to be on the brink of out-of-control behavior. As experts have said, preventing the kinds of feelings that lead to school violence, such as depression and helplessness brought on by bullying, is more effective than putting up more metal detectors.
6. Find out about the psychology of violence. Things like bullying, social wars, depression, and all kinds of negative impacts on students, can inform a community about the likelihood of a violent incident. Learning about the motivations of violent students nationwide can help your community prevent similar incidents: the psychology of these events seems to be similar in many different parts of the country.