Potential Interventions to Reduce Gun Violence in Schools Paper Example

Introduction

There is a need for intervention to reduce gun violence in schools. A school shooting is mostly influenced by bullying. The students experience humiliation which leads to suicidal or vengeance thoughts. This paper will discuss different interventions to prevent a school shooting.

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Intervention 1

The first intervention is focusing on the mental health of the students is essential according to the national education association (2014). Mental health counselors and school should collaborate in counseling and screening students who have a mental disorder. According to the national alliance on mental illness, 2010, about four million teens and children in the United States undergo severe mental illness in which 21% are of the age of 9-17, and they have a diagnosable disorder. It is important to know that many people who have a mental disorder are not dangerous, but mental health screening and treatment is vital to prevent any gun violence for people who have depression feelings and also suicidal thoughts. Evaluation, identification, testing, and referral for students experiencing emotional disturbance is essential to reduce gun violence in schools. About 12% and 28% of students my undergo mental disorder such as anxiety, depression or suicidal ideas but only a sixth of these students get mental health interventions (Weist, Rubin, Moore, Adelsheim &Wrobel, 2017). Providing mental health screening to students in school is crucial because it provides help to people suffering from mental health illness and enables agency and schools to work together to make sure that the student wellness is met so that the emotional or social, educational and vocational success can be promoted. Through mental health screening, the counselors are provided with the opportunity to identify students who at the risk of getting mental illness and also counselors to link students and their families to agencies so that they can get the help needed. This can help to reduce the feeling of loneliness, isolation and also misunderstood. According to Sandy Hook Promise, there is a need for threat assessment and intervention. Mental assessment and screening are essential because they help in intervention strategies.

Although there are different views of the stakeholders such as school staff, parents and the district board of members concerning the right intervention, there is a need for the school to provide resources to enable the school staff to undergo training. This training helps them to find it easy to identify students who may have mental illness symptoms and also seeing the need to fund mental health professionals so that they can offer screening and assessment of individuals who may be suffering from mental illness (Weist et al., 2017). If there is the availability of funds, it is crucial to allocate health care professional as they are trained on matters concerning psychotherapy and crisis intervention and they are more fortified with tools, knowledge, and resources concerning mental health issues. This will reduce the harm that can be caused.

Intervention 2

Second intervention is to provide secure and safe learning environments. All schools should promote a secure and reliable learning environment according to the national education association (2014). Equipping the school with enough structural defense and appropriate technology helps in averting the danger and safeguarding the students. It is good for the school to develop an environment which is welcoming, supportive, inclusive, cohesion and connectedness promotion through diversity celebration, the creation of none tolerance to bullying policy, assemblies, and workshop facilitated for students on special emotional regulation and anti-bullying topics. For those students possessing information about a threat, they should disclose it to any trusted person in the school. The school should be ready to respond to any threat information brought to them by the students.

School violence can also be prevented by enabling students to communicate their concerns and thoughts. The preventive measure should be taken by the counseling professionals through early intervention to avert student's reaction, and behavior comes overpowered by their emotions. The workshop should be facilitated by the school to enhance positive behaviors, improve overall school discipline and promote safety efforts with preparedness, crisis prevention, recovery and response to make sure that crisis training plans support learning and are steadily practiced. According to the legislation in Ohio, they have passed a bill concerning the resource officers where they allocated $ 12 million so that every school can be equipped with resource officers who prevent and address any crime issues in the school. Some stakeholder argue that the staff and professionals counselors must identify the students at risk or those who are struggling with issues concerning mental health and emotional distress because they can act aggressively so that other students and their safety can be safeguarded ( Washington, 2013). Professional counselors help in building essential skills among the students and aid in barrier removal to enhance development and learning. School counselors are vital because they can provide mental health services which cannot be assessed elsewhere to students who need the services due to these destructive behaviors are reduced, and academic attendance and achievement are proved.

Also, school counselors must provide professional development and articulate a comprehensive school culture. School counselors may be the stakeholders and so they can provide the professional development because they are capable of facilitating workshops and groups that aim at addressing crisis intervention, bullying, classroom safety and management and mental health by doing so it will facilitate engagement, promote inclusivity and any violence like hood would be reduced (Chung, 2012).. Also, students can be trained to become facilitators on groups concerning conflict resolution, peer mediators, education character, diversity, and development of a problem-solving skill that will help them in solving their problems in the productive matter instead of the destructive way (Anderson, Shibuya, &Ihori, 2010). There is a need to strengthen school attachment with the help of school counselors. Intervention through school counseling is necessary because they improve the school connectedness and bonding, enhancing trust between students and staff, increasing student involvement and eliminating social stratification are significant in decreasing gun violence in many schools. There is a need for the school community to invest in their students. The feelings of hostility, alienation can be eliminated among the students by implementing extra curriculum programs that obligate every student to participate thus enhancing a sense of belonging. According to the cost-benefit analysis, the presence of resource officer will bring anxiety and would not prevent any crime as compared to the professional counselors and so they will bring more harm as compared to the good.

Intervention 3

Community and family engagement

Involvement of parents and family in student education can improve the success of the children and also their achievement. Parent-school involvement as less impact as compared to parent-child participation because their attitude, behavior and even academic performance improve. Parent involvement can also reduce student violence. Parent-teacher home visit and Chicago parent Center are among some of the projects in schools to achieve the success and behavior change of the students. Also, it is essential for parents to monitor what their children are posting on social media. Many of the students express their feeling, potential plan, emotions and overall mentality on the social media involving any violence they would commit in social media. It is crucial for the parents to know the type of materials they are posting and they are exposed to. Communicating with them is also vital because according to Columbus city school districts mission all students are prepared for service and leadership and highly educated and empowered for success as a citizen in the global community (Cowan, Vaillancourt, Rossen & Pollitt, 2013). Therefore, it is vital for the parents to be incorporated into the system to help in reducing gun violence in the schools.

Parent leadership training institute is a community program that can help the parent to improve their children safety, health and education. Children health is essential because it reduces the risk of gun violence in school. A student who is mentally stable has cut attempts to be involved in gun violence in school that improved their education performance (Dikel, 2012). Those parents with less time can also be included in their children education life because there are programs that are established for home visits thus enhancing knowledge about their children. Stakeholders should be involved to ensure that every student receives a quality education because district schools are funded according to every student success Act. Parents are of importance to this group because they also benefit from the education of their children. Get to know what their children experience in school, and their involvement would be of help. Parents and stakeholders have a significant role in making sure gun violence has reduced in schools. According to the research, the parent-child involvement is of economic advantage to the public and society estimated from upgraded well-being of people at the age of 27. According to the study about $ 9,000 was used as public benefit per participation which returned about $2.11 per dollar invested.

Conclusion

It is the duty of the community members, parents, teachers, students to help in the reduction of gun violence in the school setting. It is essential to provide health education for the students to enhance achievement and success. Reduction of violence through different intervention helps in improvement of the environment. Schools are formed to be havens for faculty and students so that everybody can work and feel protected in an environment that is conducive enough for learning. It is important to allocate funds and invest in health care professional as they are trained on matters concerning psychotherapy and crisis intervention and they are more fortified with tools, knowledge, and resources concerning mental health issues. This will reduce the harm that can be caused. Professional counselors are more cost effective as compared to resource officers because they may cause more anxiety which may lead to more damage as compared to good. School counselors and health practitioners have the role in making sure that students are emotional, academically, personally and behaviorally successful. Mental assessment and screening are essential because they help in the identification of at-risk students and also appropriate treatment.

References

American Psychological Association. (2013). Gun violence: Prediction, prevention, and policy. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pubs/info/reports/gun-violencereport.pdf

Anderson, C., Shibuya, A., &Ihori, N. (2010). Violent video game effects on aggression, empathy, and prosocial behavior in eastern and western countries: A meta-analytic review. Psychology Bulletin, 2, 151-173. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/2433669/Violent_Video_Game_Effects_on_Aggression_Empathy_and_Prosocial_Behavior_in_Eastern_and_Western_Countries_A_Meta-Analytic_Review

Chung, W. (2012). School shootings: Symptoms of an American disease. Retrieved from https://www.counseling.org/docs/default-source/vistas/school-shootings-and-student-mental-health.p

Cowan, K. C., Vaillancou...