{"id":14976,"date":"2019-01-13T01:58:01","date_gmt":"2019-01-13T01:58:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=14976"},"modified":"2019-01-15T10:08:48","modified_gmt":"2019-01-15T10:08:48","slug":"school-shootings-prompted-protests-debates-about-best-ways-to-keep-students-safe-5-essential-reads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/school-shootings-prompted-protests-debates-about-best-ways-to-keep-students-safe-5-essential-reads\/","title":{"rendered":"School shootings prompted protests, debates about best ways to keep students safe: 5 essential reads"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jamaal Abdul-Alim<\/a>, The Conversation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: As we come to the end of the year, Conversation editors take a look back at the stories that \u2013 for them \u2013 exemplified 2018.<\/em><\/p>\n

If you look at the time stamp on the article, \u201cWhy security measures won\u2019t stop school shootings,\u201d<\/a> you will see that it was originally published early in the morning on Feb. 14.<\/p>\n

Several hours after the story appeared, I found myself working with the author to update it to include the shooting massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School<\/a> in Parkland, Florida that took place that afternoon.<\/p>\n

The shooting touched off unprecedented<\/a> nationwide protests by students who called for greater gun control<\/a> and worried aloud: \u201cAm I next?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

For scholars writing for The Conversation, the school shooting spurred some debate into what it takes to make a school safe. Not all of the scholars saw eye to eye.<\/p>\n

1. Kinder and gentler<\/h2>\n

Bryan Warnick, a professor of the philosophy of education<\/a> at The Ohio State University, authored the piece<\/a> we posted on the day of the Parkland shooting. Warnick argued against \u201ctarget hardening\u201d American schools, saying it might actually make things worse by changing students\u2019 experience in ways that suggest violence rather than prevent it.<\/p>\n

\u201cFilling schools with metal detectors, surveillance cameras, police officers and gun-wielding teachers tells students that schools are scary, dangerous and violent places \u2013 places where violence is expected to occur,\u201d Warnick wrote.<\/p>\n

2. Threat assessments<\/h2>\n

In contrast to Warnick\u2019s suggested \u201ceducation approach,\u201d University of Virginia school safety expert Dewey Cornell<\/a> told Congress that \u201cthreat assessments were crucial to prevent school shootings<\/a>.\u201d Such assessments, originally designed to protect public figures like foreign dignitaries and movie stars, could also help protect schools, Cornell argued in a piece adapted from his congressional testimony.<\/p>\n

3. More officers?<\/h2>\n

Will securing the nation\u2019s schools require a school resource officer in every school<\/a>? F. Chris Curran, a school safety expert<\/a> at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, shared research that found that often the training that school resource officers get is very limited.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many, the training amounted to little more than shadowing other SROs for a couple weeks,\u201d Curran writes.<\/p>\n

4. School culture is crucial<\/h2>\n

Other scholars say a culture of trust is key for school safety<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Calvin Morrill<\/a>, a law and sociology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and Michael Musheno<\/a>, a University of Oregon law professor, reached that conclusion after a long-term observation of a school they had been visiting since 1995. What they found is that increased security measures \u2013 such as metal detectors and security gates \u2013 actually led to an increase in student violence. They also found that such security measures eroded the ethos of trust they say is vital to having a safe school.<\/p>\n

5. Don\u2019t wait for trouble<\/h2>\n

Other scholars, such as psychology professor<\/a> Nathaniel von der Embse of the University of South Florida, warned that schools shouldn\u2019t wait for red flags to address student mental health<\/a>. Rather, he suggests, schools should use a screening tool to figure out which students are experiencing anxiety or depression that could cause problems later on.<\/p>\n

\u201cResearch shows that screening tools can help educators identify students with mental health needs with far greater accuracy and speed, rather than waiting for a severe problem behavior, such as a school fight,\u201d von der Embse writes.\"The<\/p>\n

Jamaal Abdul-Alim<\/a>, Education Editor, The Conversation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jamaal Abdul-Alim, The Conversation Editor\u2019s note: As we come to the end of the year, Conversation editors take a look back at the stories that \u2013 for them \u2013 exemplified 2018. If you look at the time stamp on the article, \u201cWhy security measures won\u2019t stop school shootings,\u201d you will see that it was originally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":14974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[292],"tags":[5627,2275,2174,4064,5740,4234,4380,4052,2176],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14976"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14976"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14981,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14976\/revisions\/14981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}