Violence in Schools: Rare and Preventable With a ‘Culture of Safety’

Twenty years after the mass shooting at Columbine High School, some American schools have become high-security zones with elaborate procedures for entry into the property, active-shooter lockdown drills, and zero-tolerance policies that allow students to be suspended for minor infractions. But schools are safer than the public has been led to believe by media attention to high-profile mass shootings, and at least some of these policies and practices that schools are employing may be counterproductive, according to the report “Mass Violence in America: Causes, Impacts, and Solutions” by the National Council on Behavioral Health (NCBH).

“Your child is safer in school than she is driving with you in your car,” said Joseph Parks, M.D., medical director of the NCBH, at a session on mass violence at the IPS: The Mental Health Services Conference in October in New York. He was joined by John Rozel, M.D., an expert in threat assessment and president of the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry (see story).

They summarized the findings and conclusions of the National Council report, emphasizing the need for a public health—rather than a punitive or fear-based—approach to prevention of mass violence. The report addresses mass violence in general, but Parks and Rozel highlighted some special recommendations for schools.

A priority of a public health approach to violence in schools is creating a positive climate for students to come forward because of mental health problems or concerns about other students who may be troubled.

“See Something, Say Something” programs that encourage students to approach authorities with information about a possible threat are essential in the creation of a culture and climate of safety, allowing timely, nonpunitive identification of students displaying mental distress.

A culture of safety also includes adequate teacher-student ratios and resources to provide in-school mental health and substance use evaluation and treatment or means for referral. And schools should make information about mental health widely available; the council recommendations specifically cite “Typical or Troubled?,” the APA Foundation program designed to help school personnel and others distinguish young people who are at risk or in need of treatment for mental or substance use disorders.

At the IPS presentation, Rozel and Parks underscored several practices and policies that schools should not employ. Among them: