The continuum of school violence: From Newtown to Every-town! From Just Kidding to Just Killing!

1. The continuum of school violence: From Newtown to Every-town! From Just Kidding to Just Killing! Raymond P. Lorion, PhD College of Education Towson University November 18, 2013

2. Facts about Bullying • Over 3.2 million students are victims of bullying each year. • 1 in 4 teachers see nothing wrong with bullying and will only intervene 4 percent of the time. • Approximately 160,000 teens skip school every day because of bullying. • 1 in 7 students in grades K-12 is either a bully or a victim of bullying.

3. Facts about Bullying • 56 percent of students have personally witnessed some type of bullying at school. • Over two-thirds of students believe that schools respond poorly to bullying, with a high percentage of students believing that adult help is infrequent and ineffective. • 71 percent of students report incidents of bullying as a problem at their school.

4. Facts about Bullying • 90 percent of 4th through 8th graders report being victims of bullying. • 1 out 10 students drop out of school because of repeated bullying. • Harassment and bullying have been linked to 75 percent of school-shooting incidents. • Physical bullying increases in elementary school, peaks in middle school and declines in high school.  Verbal abuse, on the other hand, remains constant.

5. Types of Bullying Physical bullying includes any physical contact that would hurt or injure a person like hitting, kicking, punching, etc. Taking something that belongs to someone else and destroying it would also be considered a type of physical bullying. For example, if someone was walking down the street and someone came up to them and shoved them to the ground, that would be physical bullying. In elementary and middle schools, 30.5% of all bullying is physical. Verbal bullying is name-calling, making offensive remarks, or joking about a person's religion, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or the way they look. For example, if there was a group of kids who made fun of another kid because he couldn't run as fast as everyone else, it would be an example of verbal bullying. 46.5% of all bullying in schools is the verbal type. Verbal aggression is when a bully teases someone. It can also include a bully making verbal threats of violence or aggression against someone's personal property.

6. Types of Bullying Indirect bullying includes spreading rumors or stories about someone, telling others about something that was told to you in private, and excluding others from groups. An example would be if you started a rumor that a boy in your class likes playing with dolls, and if the reason that you made up the story was because you thought it was funny. This would be indirect bullying. Indirect bullying accounts for 18.5% of all bullying Social alienation is when a bully excludes someone from a group on purpose. It also includes a bully spreading rumors, and also making fun of someone by pointing out their differences. Intimidation is when a bully threatens someone else and frightens that person enough to make him or her do what the bully wants.

7. 6. Types of Bullying 6. Cyberbullying is done by sending messages, pictures, or information using electronic media, computers (email & instant messages), or cell phones (text messaging & voicemail). For instance, if you sent a picture of a snake in an email to a person because you know that they are afraid of snakes, that would be an example of cyberbullying. According to a survey done in 2003 only 4% of bullying is listed as "other types" and this would include cyberbullying. Even though this number seems small, the growth of this type of bullying is going up fast because of the spread of technology around the world.

8. Common Forms of Cyber Bullying Harassment: Repeatedly sending offensive, rude, and insulting messages Denigration: Distributing information about another that is derogatory and untrue through posting it on a Web page, sending it to others through email or instant messaging, or posting or sending digitally altered photos of someone Flaming: Online "fighting" using electronic messages with angry, vulgar language Impersonation: Breaking into an email or social networking account and using that person's online identity to send or post vicious or embarrassing material to/about others.

9. Common Forms of Cyber Bullying Outing and Trickery: Sharing someone's secrets or embarrassing information, or tricking someone into revealing secrets or embarrassing information and forwarding it to others Cyber Stalking: Repeatedly sending messages that include threats of harm or are highly intimidating, or engaging in other online activities that make a person afraid for his or her safety (depending on the content of the message, it may be illegal) • *Nancy Willard with the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use (CSRIU) has developed this useful taxonomy of the various forms of cyber bullying

10. Types of Bullying

11. Modalities for Bullying Behaviors • Words • Physical bumping & jostling • Threats of physical injury • Fists • “Ganging-up” • Use or threat of use of weapons • Shunning • Giggling …mocking …teasing • “Pranks” • Embarrassment • Technology in all of its forms • Internet

12. Bullies and Their Victims Bullies • Students • Teachers • School Staff • Parents Victims • Students • Teachers • School Staff • Parents

13. “Bully” is typically “Plural”- It takes others to work

16. Ages and Stages • How do these behaviors change in middle and high school? • Where does bullying occur? Classrooms? Hallways? Bathrooms? Outside?

17. Bullies in Schools • What types of incidents have occurred? • What do the bullies look like? • What do the victims look like? • Are others a “caring majority” or “reluctant?” audience?

18. Intervention Steps • Define bullying behavior. • Measure nature and extent of problem. • Define clear procedures for dealing with bullying to be taken by staff, victims, and parents.

19. Intervention steps • Define clear rules, explicit immediate, non-hostile RESPONSES. • Train school staff and parents and students • Mobilize the “silent majority” into a bully-combating peer group.

20. Can we create environments that promote health and prevent the expression of negative affect through violent acts? SEARCH INSTITUTE’S: DEVELOPMENT ENHANCING COMMUNITIES

21. Who Are We? • Parents? • Teachers? • Extended family? • Community? • Peers? • Neighbors? • Strangers?

22. Family Isolation Social and Economic Mobility lead to a loss of contact with nuclear and extended family and a lack of intimate connection with and knowledge of one’s neighbors.

23. Civic Disengagement Civic Disengagement results from a loss of Sense of community with one’s neighborhood, one’s community and one’s government. Effectively, it reflects a sense of isolation and detachment from those factors that govern one’s daily life.

24. Professionalization of Care Professionalization of Care reflects the increasing reduction of responsibility for the care, protection maintenance and education of youth, the elderly and, generally, members of one’s immediate and extended neighborhood and community.

25. Loss of Socialization Consistency “ Socialization occurs principally, of course, within nuclear families and, especially for youth of color also within their extended families. But families do not exist in isolation. They are part of neighborhoods and of larger communities that exert broad cultural and normative influences and offer positive and negative possibilities to specific youth.

26. Marginalization of Youth “Marginalization of Youth” refers to the fact that contemporary societies assign youth significant often competing expectations with little responsibility for those around them, for their families, neighbors and the greater community.

27. A Web Of Developmental Support

28. Youth

29. Dad Youth Mom

30. Extended family

31. Teachers

32. Community Members

33. Implications for children and families • of • Learning in “violent” schools • Living in pervasively violent communities • Living in violent homes

34. What’s Killing/Harming Our Youth? • Guns • Knives • Rage • Drugs (including alcohol and tobacco) • Fists • Sexual arousal • Desperation • Sense of immortality and immunity from harm

36. Ten key findings of the Safe School Initiative study.

37. Incidents of targeted violence at school rarely were sudden, impulsive acts. • 2) Prior to most incidents, other people knew about the attacker’s idea and/or plan to attack. • 3) Most attackers did not threaten their targets directly prior to advancing the attack. • 4) There is no accurate or useful “profile” of students who engaged in targeted school violence.

38. 5) Most attackers engaged in some behavior prior to the incident that caused others concern or indicated a need for help. 6) Most attackers had difficulty coping with significant losses or personal failures. Moreover, many had considered or attempted suicide. 7) Many attackers felt bullied, persecuted or injured by others prior to the attack.

39. 8)Most attackers had access to and had used weapons prior to the attack. 9)In many cases, other students were involved in some capacity. 10) Despite prompt law enforcement responses, most shooting incidents were stopped by means other than law enforcement intervention

40. NO USEFUL “PROFILE” OF ATTACKERS • Attackers ranged in age from 11 to 21, with most attackers between the ages of 13 and 18 at the time of the attack (85%). • Three-quarters of the attackers were white (76%). [1]Supra note 13.

41. The attackers came from a variety of family situations, ranging from intact families with numerous ties to the community, to foster homes with histories of neglect. • Almost two-thirds of the attackers came from two-parent families (63).

42. Attackers differed considerably from one another in their academic achievement in school, with grades ranging from excellent to failing (n=34). • Very few were failing (5%) academically.

43. Attackers varied social relationships ranging from socially isolated to popular among their peers. • Most (41%) appeared to socialize with mainstream students or were considered mainstream students themselves • One-quarter (27%) socialized with students who were disliked or considered of a “fringe” group. • Few (12%) attackers had no close friends.

44. One-third (34%) had been characterized by themselves or others as “loners”. • Nearly half (44%) were involved in activities in or outside of school. • Nearly two-thirds of the attackers had never been in trouble or rarely were in trouble at school (63%). • One-quarter of the attackers had ever been suspended from school (27%); only a few had even been expelled.

45. BUT Almost three-quarters felt persecuted, bullied, threatened, attacked or injured by others prior to the incident (71%).

46. Almost all (98%) had experienced or perceived some major loss prior to the attack. • These losses ranged from a perceived failure or loss of status (66 %); loss of a loved one or significant other (51%); and a major illness experienced by the attacker or someone significant to him (15%) • For most attackers, their outward behaviors suggested difficulty in coping with loss (83%).

47. SHOOTINGS ARE RARE EXPERIENCES OF SCHOOL-BASED VIOLENCE ARE NOT!

48. IF RARE EVENTS CANNOT BE AVOIDED AND INTIMATE EVENTS CANNOT BE DETECTED THEN WE MUST FOCUS ON THE ANTECEDENTS TO BOTH EVENTS THEN THE ANSWER LIES IN THE ECOLOGY OF INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS

49. THANK YOU Questions?