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Second Opinion:
School Violence Report
Hosted by Abigail Trafford
Washington Post columnist
Wednesday, Mar. 14, 2001; Noon EST
Welcome to Second Opinion, a weekly column and Live Online discussion with Post Health columnist Abigail Trafford.
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Surgeon General David Satcher
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Today's guest is Surgeon General David Satcher. Satcher is calling for a new direction in preventing violence in schools. Nearly half of the programs now
in place are ineffective and a few are harmful, concludes the recent Surgeon
General's report on youth violence. Only a handful of approaches have
proved successful in enhancing the academic and emotional growth of children
and reducing the incidence of bullying and assaults.
Does your school make the grade? What kinds of programs really work? Join us today for a discussion with Surgeon General David Satcher.
The transcript follows.
Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
Abigail Trafford:
Hello everybody. Join us for a discussion with Surgeon General David Satcher. How can we make schools safe? How can we enhance the development of our children? Where are the resources to treat the mental health and development needs of students? Send your questions and comments.
Abigail Trafford:
Surgeon General Satcher--Welcome to Health Talk. Everyone is worried about violence in schools. The latest shootings are a wake-up call to address the needs of children and adolescents. In the recent report "Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General" you evaluated programs aimed at reducing violence and enhancing development. What are the main findings of the report?
Surgeon General David Satcher: We evaluated several reports and especially identified 27 programs that were effective at reducing and preventing violence. In general, the programs are targeted to two paths of violence: 1. The childhood tract begins at age 6 to 11. 2.The teenage tract runs from 12- 20.
Most of the risk factors relate to individual or family characteristics, especially parent-child interaction. An example of an effective program at this level would be a program where a pregnant teenager would be visited at home by a nurse who would counsel the teenager against smoking and alcohol during the pregnancy. After the delivery, the program would focus on the bonding between the mother and child. These programs have been shown to reduce violence among children in this population 50%.
Abigail Trafford:
What are the major risk factors for school violence?
Surgeon General David Satcher: The major risk factors for school voiolence are gangs, drugs, and guns. Many students hav epointed out that school administrators tend to ignore or to be unaware of bullying, gangs, and drug activity in the schools.
Abigail Trafford:
In the report, you identify model program. Please describe them. How many schools have such programs?
Surgeon General David Satcher: I can't say how many schools have model programs, because at was not a part of our study. We identified 27 seperate programs that were shown to be effective.
The programs that were effective were comprehensive and targeted risk factors that have their major impact in childhood and involved individual skill building and improving parent-child interaction.
Programs targeted teenage violence by focusing on community issues, such as peer relationships, gangs, drugs and weapon-carrying. Some of the most successful programs worked to improve the bonding between the students, their communities and their schools.
Bowie, Md.:
Are school shootings a distinctly different animal from similar types of incidents like workplace killings or Buford Furrow type shootings? Are the root causes -- e.g. feelings of unworth and rejection -- pretty much the same? I ask because it's easy for adults to want to put restrictions on kids while simultaneously ignoring measures to reduce adult violence.
Surgeon General David Satcher: There are very similar factors involved in school violence as in workplace violence. For example, the overwhelming majority of students perpetrating school violence had a grievance of some kind and felt that they had been the victims of some abuse or bullying. They also tend to be suicidal, and are often prone to taking their own lives as well as the lives of their peers.
The good news is that more than three out of four of the perpetrators had told someone of their intention to carry out their violent acts. Thus, if we could get more kids to realize their responsibility to report such conversations, we could prevent many of these occurences.
Brandywine, Maryland:
How do you handle the bullying behavior that students receive from some school staff personnel, which has been part of the problem for some of these students who went off the deep end?
Surgeon General David Satcher: Both students and faculty, as well as administrators, must understand that there are appropriate ways to interact with students so as to minimize not only violence, but dropout rates and absenteeism. I visited a program in Australia where the students themselves had organized a program to decrease bullying in the schools. Their programs had a dramatic impact upon changing behavior and decreasing bullying.
Arlington, VA:
Dr. Satcher-
More people have been killed by gunshots in the District over the past year than all people killed in Europe combined during the same period. Since it is clear that the prevalence of handguns is a major risk factor for US gun-related deaths, what is the Surgeon General's Office stand on gun control in the US.
Surgeon General David Satcher: The public health science consistently points to the easy access to guns as a major risk factor for violence, and for suicide. One of the findings of the youth violence prevention report was that since 1994, arrests for homicides, robberies and rapes have decreased dramatically. However, during that same period, aggravated assaults have not decreased. Thus the only explanation that we could derive for the decrease in homicides and other serious violence was that weapon carrying on the part of youth decreased dramatically during this period of time.
20001:
Thanks for being here!
It seems there are at least 2 angles that should concern parents:
(1) Ensuring that their own children's emotional needs are met in order to prevent their children from committing such an act (against others or against themselves), and of course so that they may be happy, emotionally healthy, etc.
and (2) Teaching their own children how to avoid becoming a victim of another child who has reached the breaking point.
Any suggestions on either or both of these concerns?
Surgeon General David Satcher: Clearly, the parent-child relationship/interaction is one of the major determinants of violent behavior in children. The strengthening of that relationship is a characteristic of many successful programs. However, for the violence which begins in the teenage years, the most important determinants are not family-related, but community-related and involve peer relationships. Thus parents should always want to know with whom their children are associating.
Maine :
The level of violence has escalated in
schools even since the 80s and early 90s. Why
is this? Guns were never an issue when I went
to school.
Than
Surgeon General David Satcher: Violence has long been an issue, and the role of guns in violence has been defined prior to the 1970s or 80s. School violence has actually decreased in recent years, despite the fact that there have been more high-profile shootings. Overall, far more children are killed in the community than in the schools -- 99 percent vs. 1 percent.
Washington, DC:
What do you propose is the best program that public schools need in order to prevent and deter school violence?
Surgeon General David Satcher: The best programs have been programs that targeted both the home and the school, and especially worked to improve the sense of bonding between students and home and students and school. Obviously this requires an involvement of parents in the schools and vice versa. Parents and schools must be especially aware of the role of gangs, bullying and drugs in the school and community and work to combat them.
Falls Church, VA:
I'd like to know why there are no rules in place with regards to the manner the media reports on these tragic acts? The Media Circus encourages individuals looking for their "moment in the spotlight" I'm very sure that it is not necessary to slap photos of a teenage gunman's former teenage girlfriend and pals on the front page of a newspaper!
Surgeon General David Satcher: There are certainly programs in place that are aimed at improving media coverage of violence, including suicide. CDC has published guidelines in an attempt to help the media cover violent episodes in such a way as to minimize the so-called "copy-cat" effect.
Washington, D.C.:
Schoolyard bullies like playground bullies have been around as long as there have been schools and playgrounds. This testifies to the fact not that teachers and playground supervisors dont care but that at least some children are mean and brutish and teachers generally have not found a way to successfully eliminate bulling behavior.
Can you tell us about any non-serendipitous and transferable program that has demonstrated it can effectively copy with this perennial problem?
Abigail Trafford:
In your report, you talk about the Bullying Prevention Program. This approach targets students in elementary, middle and junion high school. It has two parts: to change the classroom environment and to change individual behavior. In Norway, bullying problems were cut in half two years after the intervention. Why is this program so successful?
Surgeon General David Satcher: We believe that programs like the Norway program are successful because they involve students in modifying their own environment and making bullying an unacceptable form of behavior and providing support for those who are the victims of bullying.
Washington, D.C.:
The risk of death from school violence is so small compared with the risk of death from suicide. Why are resources not focused on suicide prevention (which, btw, would take a form that theoretically could help prevent school violence, as intentions of the shooter are most often suicide)?
Surgeon General David Satcher: As you may know, we released "The Surgeon General's Call to Action for Suicide Prevention" in July 1999 and have been working with communities throughout the country since that time to develop a national strategy for suicide prevention. That strategy will be released in May of this year, and will speak to suicide prevention at all ages, including school-aged children.
We already have launched a program with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Ronald McDonald House Charities that is geared towards improving the awareness of children of the risk factors for suicide, and ways in which they can intervene, such as reporting incidents in which students state that the intend to take their lives or are considering it. Again, it is not "ratting" when one intervenes to save the life of a peer of others who may be at risk.
Vienna, Va.:
Why does it appear that the school violence ending in death, takes place in Middle Class and Upper Middle Class schools. Are guns more readily available to these students?
Surgeon General David Satcher: We do not have a profile of students who are most likely to commit the high-profile school shootings, and it would be premature and inaccurate to assume they were limited to middle-class schools
Washington, D.C.:
Dr. Satcher:
Do you think that discussing the emotions of kids is as important as addressing the means by which they can express their emotions? (fist-fighting versus gun shoot-out)
Surgeon General David Satcher: I think both are equally important, and in some ways are inseparable.
Alexandria, Va.:
Hello! Thank you for taking the time to make yourself available to the public today. I am 25 years old and can't comprehend how children are behaving and raised these days. I am not too much older than these high school students but I feel like I was raised in a different world. My main concern is that parents are not taking responsibility for raising their children and rely too much on the government to do it for them. I am upset that my tax dollars are being wasted on programs to prevent bullying or preventing shootings. If parents did their job it wouldn't be necessary. Any thoughts? Abigail Trafford:
I agree with you that parenting is key. But it's not the only key. And some kids who are troubled have wonderful, concerned parents. Like you say--parents who do their job right. Still, the children get into troube and need help from the larger community. Dr. Satcher, your thoughts on this?
Surgeon General David Satcher: Parents have always needed help in raising children, and often have gotten that help from very close-knit and supportive comnmunities. In a sense, government support is an expansion of those close-knit and supportive communities.
Herndon, Va.:
I was wondering your views on teaching respect in schools. A majority of students bully other children to improve their own self esteem. Something needs to be done to foster respect and understanding within peer groups.
Surgeon General David Satcher: I agree completely. That was the kind of program we saw in operation in Australia, and that is being developed in many areas of this country. It is certainly true that children who bully have their own problems and insecurities and can benefit from programs such as this.
Capitol Hill, D.C.:
Hello. Here's an idea:
Kids today are swamped with homework. Way too much of it, if you ask me. Send a note to the folks telling them that for one week there will be NO homework for the kids. None. That, instead, they are to take that week, in lieu of homework, and spend it having Quality time with their kids. I think it might work. Sure couldn't hurt! Abigail Trafford:
What an interesting idea. A week of family homework! Dr. Satcher?
Surgeon General David Satcher: I have no comment on the homework proposal. I strongly support quality time between parents and children, and I don't think that quality time is inconsistent with homework.,
Boston, Mass.:
There was a recent shooting spree by a young man in a public high school north of San Diego. By reports seen he had loosely threatened and implied to any number of friends he would "pull a Colombine"--yet none of them believed him or felt the need to take any action. After the shooting they all expressed regret at not comprehending the potential of his comments. Now, it seems obviously undesirable encourage schools & society to become militant and paranoid about every bit of casual interchange or humor, yet here's my question: what is appropriate intervention on the part of peers and/or schools in this very grey area of potentiality of violence, and the signals of it? How could schools structure policies to encourage appropriate peer-to-administration communication about potential violence without immediately causing threat to innocent peers, or inadvertently encouraging great misjudgement? Abigail Trafford:
You raise really good points. We don't want to create an atmosphere of paranoia in schools that would stifle the experession of feelings and thoughts among students. At the same time we want to be alert to warning signs. Dr. Satcher, where's the balance?
Surgeon General David Satcher: We believe that any discussion by a student, or thoughts or plans of taking their own lives or the lives of others should be taken seriously. I believe that a structured form of intervention is important and as much as possible should involve peers as well as parents and administrators. I believe that we can minimize the dangers of such interactions.
Abigail Trafford:
Our time is up. I'm sorry not to get to all the questions. But Dr. Satcher has agreed to come back and talk with us. Thank you all for your comments and questions. Join me next week for more Health Talk.
Abigail Trafford:
That was our last question today. Thanks to Surgeon General David Satcher, and to
everyone who joined us.
Stay tuned on Live Online:
Joel
Achenbach at 1 p.m. EST
Wyoming
Gov. Jim Geringer at 3 p.m. EST
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