Introduction
Shootings at schools have become a popular topic in the media and raised concerns among public including officials, parents, and scientists. The extent and the cause of the problem have been researched by multiple specialists from different fields. Flannery, Modzeleski, and Kretschmar (2013) tend to think that acts of school violence resulting in gunfire are a rare occasion, yet they significantly influence mental health and perception of victims, bystanders, and the concerned public. A severe crisis like that needs a planned intervention and careful management (Mishna, 2009; UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools, 2008). In the presented case study, a responder requires not only to stop the violence but also help solve conflicts with press and parents and ensure proper prevention measures are in order. In this paper, separate crisis intervention strategies will be presented in order to deal with each of the named issues.
Crisis Intervention Plan to Stop the Violence
Immediate Action
According to Greenstone and Leviton (2010), institutions should have an emergency response plan ready in advance. However, in this case, it seems that such a plan was not created. Therefore, due to the limited time, one could use guidelines for crisis intervention. One of the first things to do is to define the type of crisis which is the first part of the crisis assessment (Myer, Peterson, & Willow, 2002). In the given case, the crisis is an accident that is perceived as life-threatening. This means that children will likely be frightened, shocked or emotional. James (2008) argues that immediate actions should be to assert control of the situation and prevent disorientation. Establishing safety and security of all people that are involved in the accident is the priority, which is why one of the first people to contact is the police and school security forces.
Making contact with the Victim
As soon as the shooter is identified, there is a need to establish a rapport with him or her. According to multiple sources, to assert control over the situation a responder is required to demonstrate and communicate calmness which can be seen, heard and, sensed. Upright posture, soothing voice, smooth gestures, and so forth can assure the victim that no harm comes from you and there is no need to escalate the conflict (James, 2008; Greenstone & Leviton, 2010).
The goal is to prevent the victim from inflicting harm on himself or herself and others. In order to do that, there is a need to assess the situation and inquire about the reasons for the crisis. Open-ended questions can help a victim to relay more information and resort to the conversation rather than acting. In the process, the responder should be concerned with the situation assessment and search for the priority actions (James, 2008).
Seeking a Way Out
According to James (2008), due to stress, a victim might be prone to consider fewer options than there are available. A good tactical decision might be to cautiously lead the victim to consider alternatives and try solving problems. Once a violence-free alternative is agreed upon, there is a need to make arrangements and ensure that the alternative is fulfilled. For that, James (2008) suggests using referrals such as telephones and locations of services that were discussed. Importantly, the victim needs to see the process of his or her problem being resolved in order not to give them a reason to change their mind. In addition, at all stages, there is a need to assure the victim of its complete control over the situation and build the conversation accordingly. The child or adolescent needs to be talked to like an adult and assured of that fact.
Aftermath
Since there are casualties, then it is highly likely that law enforcement agencies will take the matter in their hands. The police should be informed of every detail to ensure that along with legal consequences there is also a rehabilitation for the victim. Underlying issues that might make a crime repetitive need to be resolved. At this stage, information management is critical, so it could be wise to address the executives and ask them to establish a temporary authority body that would manage the information exchange and its outward-directed flows (James, 2008). It would also be the right decision to delegate some issues to body members, as many of them should be addressed as soon as possible. Since the school may house many students, it is essential to identify groups of those who were in direct contact with the shooter, knows him or her well, and witnessed the event. The information that they provide might help improve the existing body of research on prevention of such crimes.
Crisis Intervention Plan for Working with Parents
At the Time of the Crisis
The intervener needs to work with teachers and police to contact the parents of the involved children. UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools (2008) suggests that a crisis action team should be established to accurately inform and update parents with all necessary information. It is understandable that each parent’s first concern is the safety of their child. Which is why it is essential to communicate that all forces are concentrated on establishing that safety. The tactics here need to resemble ones used in a conversation with a victim. Everybody needs to remain calm and focused.
As soon as all concerned parents are informed of the current situation, it is important that they are not inflicting chaos but helping to resolve or organize the situation if possible. Parents of a victim should be treated with utmost care. The information they possess might be critical to resolving the situation, so the crisis team needs to recover valuable information from them as soon as possible and transfer it to the person that manages the conflict with a victim. Other parents might be involved in helping to organize the evacuation if such help is required. Active involvement in a certain activity can help people preserve their mental health.
After the Crisis
The goal here would be to reunite children with parents after the school area is secured. Protecting their privacy directly after the event is a moral objective of a crisis team. A special task is to deliver the parents of the deceased children the sad news. Obviously, maximum delicacy needs to be maintained. According to Kanel (2014), stages of grief over the deceased may take unhealthy forms, which may require the attention of physician and psychologist. Also, all parents should be advised to talk to their children about what has happened in order to help professionals identify symptoms of emotional trauma, post-traumatic stress disorders, and other crisis-related complications (Roberts, 2002). Such cases should be reported back to the crisis team that will create a list of children in need of counseling.
Crisis Intervention Plan for Working with Press
The main goal of the strategy for handling press is to form the adequate portrayal of the crisis in media and among public preventing mass hysteria. According to Kanel (2014), before initiating any actions aimed at gathering information, building rapport, and other interactions with the audience, a councilor needs to possess at least some factual and statistical information about events like the one that victims experienced. This could be helpful in reframing the perception of the event and could become a stepping stone on the path of forming the adequate view of the event. In the case of the media, many sources tend to exaggerate the prevalence of the cases.
According to the official data analyzed by Flannery et al. (2013), from 1996-2006 only 21 student death occurred within school premises. Considering the number of schools across the U.S. (around 125 thousand), a school shooting in any given school is possible only once in 6000 years (Flannery et al., 2013). This information should be used cautiously and in exclusive cases to eliminate “end-of-the-world” kind of responses. This is vital due to the possibility of press giving the wrong image of the event and contributing to the formation of the wrong idea of school shootings.
In the middle of the crisis, it is important to be transparent and to provide the press with fewer grounds for imagination. It is equally paramount to control the amount of media attention to the children and control every attempt of interview contact in order to send the wrong image of the events. It appears to be a wise decision to have the school executives to handle the press and make sure they possess accurate information. After the crisis has been settled. A press conference should be organized where the preliminary results and action plan for recovery should be presented.
An Intervention Plan for Prevention
Crisis prevention is vital as it decreases the chance of similar events happening in an educational institution. According to Mishna (2009), a prevention plan should cover causes at various levels of the school system and form a comprehensive system of observation, reporting, intervention, and follow-ups. All teachers, staff, parents, and students need to be informed about the signs and symptoms of adverse behavior that might lead to grave consequences. Most importantly, all of those groups need to be taught how to properly react to such signs. Flannery et al. (2013) report that people who can potentially initiate a school shooting include “traumatized, psychotic, and psychopathic” (p. 334). Regular mental-health assessments can help identify such issues in students (Myer et al., 2002). Upon identifying individuals that might be prone to violence outbreak, school psychologists or other specialists should take action while notifying parents of the adolescent’s possible mental health issues. If the aggression-prone student successfully completes the treatment course, regular checks should still be in order (Mishna, 2009).
Conclusion
All crisis intervention plans are united by the fact that they require careful planning. Guidelines should be developed for the possible outcomes of crisis and each person in the educational institution should be instructed to follow them. Each group of stakeholders including students, parents, media, and school officials need to be handled differently during, and after the crisis, but every one of them needs to have their problems addressed. The proposed plans and suggestions can help schools prevent and react to shootings more effectively.
References
Flannery, D. J., Modzeleski, W., & Kretschmar, J. M. (2013). Violence and school shootings. Current Psychiatry Reports, 15(1), 331-336.
Greenstone, J. L., & Leviton, S. C. (2010). Elements of crisis intervention: Crisis and how to respond to them (3rd ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
James, R. K. (2008). Crisis intervention strategies. New York, NY: Thomson Brooks/Cole.
Kanel, K. (2014). A guide to crisis intervention (5th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
Mishna, F. (2009). An overview of the evidence on bullying prevention and intervention programs. Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention, 8(4), 327–341.
Myer, R. A., Peterson, S. E., & Willow, R. A. (2002). Assessment of children and adolescents in crisis. Trauma and Loss: Research and Intervention 2(1). Web.
Roberts, A. R. (2002). Assessment, crisis intervention and trauma treatment: The integrative act intervention model. Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention, 2(1), 1-22.
UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools. (2008). Responding to crisis at a school. Web.