Experts on School Violence Put Recent Events Into Perspective

University of Virginia professors Dewey Cornell and Peter Sheras, both clinical psychologists in the Curry School of Education and experts on violence and school safety, can help to put into perspective recent violent events in schools across the country and reactions to them.

Cornell and Sheras have devoted years of research to studying problems in adolescence. They literally wrote the book on threat assessment for schools: "Guidelines for Responding to Student Threats of Violence," published last year, is the first comprehensive manual of its kind.

Cornell cautions that two or three incidents, as horrific as they may be, do not constitute a trend that schools are becoming more dangerous. “Violence in schools has been declining for over 10 years and schools are still the safest place for a child to be. More children are murdered at home than at school,” Cornell points out.

“Instead of hiring more armed guards, we need to pay more attention to persons who make threats of violence. In most school shootings, the perpetrator made repeated threats or statements of intention to carry out a violent act. We cannot assume that someone who makes a threat will carry it out, but we can investigate threats and determine how serious they are,” he continues.

Cornell and Sheras both caution the media about how they report on these kinds of crimes. “We must also examine the copy-cat nature of some of these crimes,” Sheras says. “In a sincere effort to report the news accurately, media outlets may provide details that would be used by disturbed individuals in the commission of their own acts or violence.

“People will need to address this tragedy at school and in the home, taking into account the emotional development stage of the children,” says Sheras.

 

Source: University of Virginia

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