Education Week - June 15, 2022 - 17

We Can
Do More to
Stop School
Shootings
By Sarah Rogerson
une is Gun Violence Awareness Month, and
this year, it will be observed at memorials and
funerals as ripples of grief ravage a country
bloated with weapons and battling commonsense
education and gun-safety reforms.
My family is among the victims of this
epidemic of mass shootings. Last November,
my nephew was shot by a classmate in
the hallway at Oxford High School in Michigan. He
survived, but four other children died that day. Two days
after my nephew was shot, a threat scribbled on a wall in
a student restroom forced my own son's middle school-
more than 500 miles away-into lockdown. And then,
six months later, on the night of the attack in Uvalde,
Texas, as the vice president of our local school board, I
presided over a moment of silence.
Although predictable and preventable, the tragedy in
Uvalde is unlikely to move Congress to act on commonsense
gun reform, but there are initiatives that school
community leaders and parents of school-age children
can take on a hyperlocal level to start curbing the
scourge of gun violence right now.
Numerous studies have shown that students
participating in social-emotional-learning programs
paired with better mental health supports and
implemented through a lens of equity can increase
academic performance and improve classroom
behavior. Through social-emotional learning, children
acquire the skills necessary to manage their emotions,
understand their strengths and overcome challenges,
and develop a sense of awareness and empathy for
others.
Mental health supports can range from school
counseling to parent education and, importantly, create
a learning environment where students feel safe to
explore and develop these skills. Equity and inclusion
measures are intended to ensure that all children
are able to access and realize their full achievement
potential.
In the months since the incident of violence against
my nephew, I have witnessed targeted and deliberate
campaigns of misinformation across the country
intended to interrupt the very programs that could be the
most effective way to curb gun violence in America.
Armed with nonsensical talking points from progun,
anti-critical-race-theory politicians, misinformed
parents and school board candidates allege that schools
are using a combination of mental health supports and
responsible decisionmaking and social-skills programs
to indoctrinate their children with politically progressive
viewpoints. This narrative deliberately ignores the gains
that these proven social-emotional-learning programs
provide to all students.
Lessons about resilience, emotional self-regulation,
and communication skills will not indoctrinate students
into any political views. These programs will, however,
give educators the tools they need to intervene and
interrupt the radicalization and the pathology of the next
generation of mass shooters.
Systemic racism, the K-12 culture wars, and gun
violence are inextricably linked. The perpetrators of
mass shootings are not only predominantly white, they
Mourners grieve at Oxford High School in Oxford, Mich., in December. A sophomore has been charged with killing
four students and wounding seven other people.
often exhibit troubling behavior predictive of their
future actions. And those actions remain inadequately
addressed by an overextended public education system.
Both the racist attacker in the Buffalo, N.Y. grocery store
massacre and the gunman who injured my nephew
made prior threats in school that should have resulted in
a more robust response on multiple fronts.
Instead of investing in tools to help school officials
prevent and address red flags, discussions and
actions post-tragedy inevitably center on arming
teachers, surveillance technology, clear (or bulletproof)
backpacks, and zero-tolerance behavior policies.
discipline, and delayed gratification are key, and the
American School Counselors Association has developed
standards that any school system can adopt. Wellexecuted
restorative-justice and other school-based
practices that center de-escalation of conflict and
repair student and community relationships can help
address the root causes of school shootings including
a lack of stability at home, social isolation, and lack of
social-support networks. Programs such as Sandy Hook
Promise " Start With Hello " are specifically designed to
help children identify signs of social isolation in their
peers and teach them how to help others feel included
and supported.
The Uvalde shooter was described as a lonely
My family is among the
victims of this epidemic
of mass shootings.
teenager with a difficult home life and a history of being
bullied in middle school due to a speech impediment.
Each of these issues is precisely the focus of socialemotional,
mental health, and equity and inclusion
programs.
I know many people feel frustrated and helpless.
But there is so much that can be done. Encourage
your administrators and school boards to stay
focused on creating interdisciplinary teams to
design and implement a strategic plan for equity and
inclusion, such as we did in my district, where socialemotional
learning and mental health best practices are
a key component.
Attend school board public-comment sessions or
In practice, these measures have not effectively
curbed white violence by white perpetrators, but many
of them have increased disciplinary proceedings
against Black students, perpetuating and exacerbating
race-disparate outcomes that equity policies seek to
remediate.
Militarizing (or hardening) our schools and pursuing
harsh student discipline is inefficient, ineffective, and
expensive. Our most effective practices are proactive
rather than punitive. Equipping our teachers with proven
strategies, rather than firearms, is our best bet for safer
schools and more-successful, self-regulated, futureready
students.
Comprehensive K-12 school counseling programs,
which help children learn critical-thinking skills, selfinitiate
write-in campaigns with other parents and
teachers to support these efforts and combat the
false narrative of fearmongers, including those who
perpetrate replacement-theory lies. Educate yourself
on your district's violence-prevention efforts and
consider whether your professional training empowers
you to contribute to the social-emotional-learning and
violence-reduction conversations in your school district.
If you spend your day working in the fields of child
welfare, career development, mental health, substance
abuse, juvenile justice, housing insecurity, or law
enforcement, you can prevent a tragedy in your own
backyard. My family survived gun violence. Yours
shouldn't have to. Let's reclaim the narrative.
ROGERSON is the vice president of Niskayuna school
board in upstate New York and a professor at Albany
Law School.
EDUCATION WEEK | June 15, 2022 | www.edweek.org/opinion | 17
Paul Sancya/AP

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Education Week - June 15, 2022

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