The Impact of violence on School Children
I have gone back and forth about writing this post. I
live in Oregon where there was a mass shooting last week. I wanted to write
something but decided against it. Then this morning when I woke up and did my
morning Facebook newsfeed scroll, I saw postings about a shooting at a college
in Arizona. I didn’t even click on the links. Instead I shut down the app. I
have absolutely no desire to be political or to take a particular stance on gun
control. I want to speak about the effect of shootings I have seen on children as
I experienced aftermaths of two shootings as an urban principal.
One of my morning routines is to have the local news
on as I get ready for work. This helped me to know the traffic conditions as
well as the weather (read: rainy day recess or not; this is Oregon). One
morning during the 2011-12 school year, I was preparing for our monthly
district leadership meeting. All administrators come together on the first Thursday
of the month for a day of nuts and bolts, professional development and other
tasks. As I moved about getting dressed, making coffee, etc. the newscaster
started to speak of a shooting outside a topless bar at an intersection one
block away from my school. Even though the shooting happened at 3:00 a.m. the
body was still in the middle of the street as the police conducted their
investigation. When I was viewing this it was 6:00 a.m. Students would start
arriving at the school at 7:30 a.m. The three school buses that brought
students would drive right in front of the bar as they did every morning.
I immediately started contacting a variety of individuals.
My supervisor so that he knew that I would not be at the meeting.
Transportation to see if we could re-route the buses. My assistant principal so
that she would head to the school as well and so she knew the day we had ahead
of us. As I drove to work I wondered if any of our students were related to the
victim, how could I get a crisis response team to the building, what would I
say to the staff, what would the staff say to the kids and so many other
thoughts about how to best make school normal for the students.
Transportation couldn’t re-rout the buses. Three buses
transporting 60-65 students (total of 180-195) drove right past the crime
scene. Yes, the body was still there but it was covered. Kids streamed off the
buses talking about what they had seen. Some were scared, some wanted to talk about
it right then and there, others looked at me with a look that conveyed they
expected I would make their world right again. We went to every classroom to
touch base with every teacher to check in about how they felt about dealing
with their students’ questions. The crisis response team arrived to serve
anyone who needed the support. We managed to normalize the day as best we could
given the circumstances. The victim was not related to any students which made
the incident temporary for the whole student body.
The second time I dealt with a shooting was in the
spring of 2013. Two seventh grade boys arrived to school on the particular day
going directly to the Assistant Principal’s office. She came to find me because
the situation was difficult and she felt we needed to address it together. The
two boys had reported to her that they had witnessed a shooting the night
before. In fact, they were standing on either side of the victim when he was
shot multiple times. They each ran and dove into areas where they would be safe
from the bullets. One of the students stated that he would never forget how
quickly his friend’s white t-shirt had become blood soaked. They gave us names
of other kids who had witnessed the shooting.
I asked the boys why they were in school given that
they were clearly traumatized by the event. I remember saying, “there’s no way
you are learning English or math or science today. Why are you here?” It was
hard not to cry when they replied that they felt safe at school and that they
knew that we knew what to do next. They trusted us so much. I was proud that
our team had built an environment that felt safe, welcoming and nurturing for
them.
I asked them to speak to Portland PD but they resisted
out of fear as well as from not wanting to be perceived as “rats”. After a
sustained period of time I was able to get them to agree to speak to an officer
if they could remain anonymous and if the officer was a man of color. That was
important to the boys so I had to convey that to Portland PD dispatch. They sent
two officers of color who were able to get two eye witness accounts to an open
investigation. While the officers spoke to the boys, we rounded up the other
kids that were named to ask them about what supports they may need.
I share these anecdotes because childhood trauma
deeply impacts children over a long period of time. Dr. Nadine Burke Harris
speaks about the long term effects of trauma on children. Whether children are
exposed to trauma through personally experiencing a mass shooting, driving by a
dead body or standing next to a friend that is shot the effects will be long
term. There is re-traumatization that happens if children are exposed to the
constant replay, analysis and discussion of the violence in the media. If there
is no mental health support given then the children will not address the trauma
experience, especially if the student does not have coping skills.
So what is my purpose for writing this post? I am
concerned about how exposure to trauma with increased violence in our schools
is impacting our children. As a teacher and then an administrator, I had no
training to how to appropriately address this effect. I had great intentions of
helping students. I can love them and nurture them but they need more than
that.
We now understand better than we ever have before how exposure to early adversity affects the developing brains and bodies of children. It affects areas like the nucleus accumbens, the pleasure and reward center of the brain that is implicated in substance dependence. It inhibits the prefrontal cortex, which is necessary for impulse control and executive function, a critical area for learning….[When] this system is activated over and over and over again, and it goes from being adaptive, or life-saving, to maladaptive, or health-damaging. Children are especially sensitive to this repeated stress activation, because their brains and bodies are just developing. ~ Dr. Nadine Burke Harris
I worry that in the
chase for test scores we forget to acknowledge one another’s humanity,
especially the humanity of our children. I worry about the impact of violence
of all types on our children. I wonder if in all of the rhetoric anyone stops
to think about the true future of our county: the youth.
