Introduction
The vast majority of students in our country will finish their school years primarily unaffected by violent incidents. Nevertheless, in this day and age, how realistic is this thinking style? Recent school assaults in Texas and even in Florida, which we call home, have altered our concept of school safety. According to a startling statistic compiled by the U.S. Department of Education in 2018, 37 localities in the country experienced school violence between 1974 and 2018. (U.S. Department of Education, 2020). Although it might not seem like a lot, the toll that the victims of the violence have paid is high enough to cause alarm.
Types of Crisis in Schools
A crisis squad is necessary for every district and school. This team’s primary job is to outline what emergencies may happen in the community and schools and what circumstances would cause the plan to go into effect. The team may consider various variables, including the school’s internal capacity to manage a crisis and its track record of reacting to previous problems. Floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, and tornadoes (Kanel, 2019). outbreaks of diseases or Infections, Severe weather, bomb threats, chemical or hazardous material spills, school shootings, bus accidents, medical emergencies, fires, student or staff deaths (suicide, homicide, unintentional, or natural), and acts of terror or war are some examples of crises that may happen in schools (Kanel, 2019).
Environment and Safety in Schools
School threat assessment suggests that a safety plan must include measures for promoting a culture of respect, connection, and safety (Kerr & King., 2018). The main objective of school violence prevention is to create cultures and environments of safety, civility, and connectedness among staff and students. Students who connect with staff and instructors feel respected and safer in their surroundings. Relationship building, dialogue, and respect are prioritized in a supportive setting. Students feel more comfortable contacting someone with their difficulties if schools place a strong emphasis on interpersonal relationships.
Communication is essential for maintaining safety. Information moves quickly and is not kept a secret until it is too late in this kind of atmosphere. The campus’s general safety may be improved if students know they can turn to a reliable staff.
Crisis Worker Responsibilities
An evaluation of patient-related variables is required for every crisis response in schools. The danger of students committing suicide and homicide, their need for medical care, their use of drugs and alcohol, and their use of unhealthy coping mechanisms must all be evaluated. Including the patient’s support systems outside the classroom, such as their family and other social networks, is crucial. Before and after executing a crisis plan in schools, it is crucial to develop rapport and make psychological contact with the students. The interventionist builds a strong relationship with the client by communicating in a safe atmosphere of respect and open communication.
Patients are evaluated for problems and difficulties in their lives, including access to firearms, poverty, underage drinking, domestic violence, mental illness, bullying, family divorce, drug use, and homelessness, among other risk factors. These issues and difficulties are then used to identify patient-related factors (Huber & Helm., 2020).
It is urgent to understand that, as indicated by studies, while specific individuals who take steps to inflict harm may honestly do as such, numerous others do not. As per research, most of the aggressors did not straightforwardly communicate their alarming message to their casualty; all things considered, they shared their aims and arrangements with others before the assault (U.S. Branch of Training, 2020). Considering this, interventionists and schools ought to investigate people who conduct themselves in a way that suggests they have the potential to perform a violent act rather than merely listening out for potential threats.
In order to determine if a patient or student poses a threat to schools and institutions, three types of information need typically be gathered: identifiers, background information, and details on the patient’s or student’s present living circumstances. Name, physical description, date of birth, student ID number, and gender are general information that may be used to identify someone.
Information about the place of residence, social networks, possession of weapons, mental health, family and living circumstances, academic records, bullying history, juvenile delinquency, attitudes toward violence, substance abuse history, and grievance history are all examples of background information. The sort and nature of relationships, ongoing misfortunes, and misery, coping difficulties, perceptions of being treated unjustly or differently, realized self-destruction endeavors, and social worries are instances of current life data (Meloy et al., 2021).
It is crucial to describe how a crisis worker ought to behave in the event of a catastrophe. There should be a response strategy that details the duties of the response teams and the rules and procedures to follow. The primary concerns are the protection of the pupils, the fast and correct broadcast of information about a crime or offense, and the abolition of any potential psychological or physical effects of the crisis.
Crisis professionals should initially take care of any hazards to pupils before responding to a potential crisis or offense. The incident’s cause must then be identified, and the people accountable for it. When an offender is located, crisis professionals should identify the causes of delinquent conduct, such as drug misuse, strained parent-child interactions, or weakened mental health. Finally, it is crucial to direct the student to the appropriate healthcare facility, medical expert, or legal counsel to prevent future occurrences of this nature.
Behaviors and Characteristics of Juvenile Offenders
When spotting possible juvenile offenders, crisis professionals should consider several personality traits and psychiatric indicators. Gender is one of the main risk variables for criminal behavior since males tend to commit crimes (Leban & Gibson., 2020). Boys may be more prone than girls to display aggressive behaviors and get less parental supervision than girls.
Low IQ and background of general crimes are two additional risk factors. According to Shader (n.d.), the actions of potential juvenile criminals might vary by age. Children between the ages of 6 and 11 could, for instance, perform poorly in class, be antisocial and reluctant to make friends, be tardy for class, and dispute with the instructor. Furthermore, hyperactivity, dishonesty, and strained parent-child interactions among people in this age range may result in infractions. Risk factors for teenagers between the ages of 12 and 14 may include poor academic performance, gang involvement, the inability to form deep bonds with classmates, and delinquent peers (Shader, n.d.).
Crisis workers can detect prospective juvenile offenders in schools since there are several characteristics they may examine. For instance, the first symptom to consider can be if a young child allegedly lacks motivation for school and has no educational goals. Observing societal elements that can adversely affect people’s conduct in the future is essential when the components mentioned above are present.
Potential offenders could be close friends with those who have acted aggressively or delinquent, or they might, on the other hand, be excluded from their classmates’ group. Additionally, they could exhibit indicators of mental or physical harassment and encounter assault from their peers. A youngster or adolescent’s psychological symptoms must also be taken into consideration. For instance, people could exhibit sadness, suicidal ideation, or excessive stress. Additionally, due to these circumstances, kids could behave aggressively toward instructors or their peers and frequently be observed sobbing and distressed.
Screening for Potential Offenders
A school evaluation plan’s main objective is preventing a crisis and attack. Some contributing variables to the system of schools and institutions include things that make those institutions dangerous, susceptible, or occasionally liable for incidents. Unquestionably, evaluating these variables will aid in the intervention and prevention of many violent actions.
Many elements that contribute to violence and crises in learning institutions, such as suicide, violence, gangs, and bullying, may sometimes be traced back to schools and other institutions. Numerous educational programs are being eliminated due to severe budget cuts around the country. Many people used to turn to these programs as a means of avoiding youth truancy and criminality. Participating actively in establishing volunteer-run programs that enable many more pupils to participate is one strategy to encourage adolescents to engage in extracurricular activities (Muller et al., 2018).
Regarding system-related elements in schools and institutions, safety and security are also matters of concern. Many institutions might not have the operational funds necessary to implement the right tools to monitor employee and patron behavior. There are several concerns for the institution when there is no supervision. Another contributing issue is the lack of employee training about workplace violence, safety, and security. Staff reductions are a significant contributor to the emergence of violent opportunities. The hold-down of circumstances that could have been contained assuming extra force was accessible is forestalled by a deficiency of staff (Kanel, 2019).
Potential offenders can be screened using a variety of techniques. They could include methods incorporating drug testing and thorough psychological and risk assessments. In addition to questionnaires and in-person interviews with pupils, the screening procedure may also entail gathering data from parents and others who are acquainted with the juvenile.
Discussing the person’s attitude toward peers, interactions with family members, and recent recurring thoughts and sentiments is essential throughout interviews. Paying attention to small things like body language is crucial since it might reveal people’s opinions and contradict what they say. An interviewer must consider the variables that might result in incorrect responses, such as poor mental health, a lack of enthusiasm to talk about complex subjects, fear, anxiety, and drunkenness. Creating a secure and welcoming setting for the assessment is an essential factor that must be considered.
Programs for Intervention and Prevention
A needs analysis is essential to averting crises at schools and other institutions. Assessments indicate what the schools require regarding infrastructure, training, and understanding of different occurrences. Following the evaluation, quality assurance should be conducted to give all stakeholders and participants a straightforward procedure for handling a severe school emergency. This should give a clear picture of what will occur throughout the plan’s implementation stages, when it occurs, who will be in charge of each component of the plan, how reporting should be done, who will do the reporting, and what the plan’s follow-up action will be (Kerr & King., 2018).
A variety of things should go into the crisis plan’s execution in schools and other institutions. There ought to be necessities that fulfill the foundation’s requests, including operations and communication centers, building plans, clearing and getaway courses, counseling places, clinical offices with medical aid capacities, and security enforcement stations (Kanel, 2019).
Preventive strategies must be put in place to reduce the likelihood of future violations. In order to do this, it is imperative to address all of the issues raised above, including family dynamics and individual behavioral and personal characteristics. For instance, school administrators may implement initiatives meant to treat psychological issues among kids that might result in antisocial conduct. They could consist of no-cost therapy sessions with psychologists and psychiatrists, intimate discussion groups where people can voice their worries, and instruction. These actions might strengthen the bonds between people and the school administration and promote student interaction.
Additionally, educational institutions may set up counseling sessions for parents to review potential problems and create a strategy for resolving them. Schools may decrease one of the main factors contributing to juvenile delinquency and other crimes and increase students’ academic achievement by fostering better connections between kids and their family members.
Summary
It is our collective obligation as a community to create a strategy or plan to stop and deal with possible violent acts in schools and other institutions. Despite being challenging, complex, and maybe requiring finance from relatively few sources, the endeavor is not insurmountable. No one strategy will stop all violent acts in the future, but having a strategy in place is essential.
Any strategy created should specify that every act of violence or threat should be evaluated individually since no one plan is appropriate for every circumstance. All violent circumstances or acts should be evaluated, researched, and examined to offer lessons that will aid the team in preventing such incidents in the future. To reinforce what was taught and expected of everyone, frequent and consistent mock exercises and simulations should be conducted.
References
Huber, S. G., & Helm, C. (2020). COVID-19 and schooling: evaluation, assessment and accountability in times of crises—reacting quickly to explore critical issues for policy, Practice and research with the school barometer. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 32(2), 237-270.
Kanel, K. (2019). A guide to crisis intervention. Cengage Learning.
Kerr, M. M., & King, G. (2018). School crisis prevention and intervention. Waveland Press.
Leban, L., & Gibson, C. L. (2020). The role of gender in the relationship between adverse Childhood experiences and delinquency and substance use in adolescence. Journal Of criminal justice, 66, 101637.
Meloy, J. R., Hoffmann, J., Deisinger, E. R., & Hart, S. D. (2021). Threat assessment and Threat management.
Muller, Chandra, and David Kerbow. “Parent involvement in the home, school, and Community.” In Parents, their children, and schools, pp. 13-42. Routledge, 2018.
Shader, M. (n.d.). Risk factors for delinquency: An overview. Web. U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics (2020). Digest of Education Statistics 2000. Washington, D.C.: Authors
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