Preventing and Intervention for School Violence

Project Summary
Research evidence indicates that school violence has increased over the past years. The Federal Government has made a committed to ensure school safety and reduce school violence. The “Let my Child Live Foundation” grant application report that I have created will seek to develop reality based intelligence and find out what works to promote safety and healthy environments in the school. We hope to collaborate with juvenile law enforcement personnel, psychiatrist, psychologists and the entire school system to achieve the needed grants and funding. There are many things that we hope to accomplish. If grants are given to this program we will strive to reach our number one goal which is to create a safe school environment, mandatory prevention strategies that every school is mandated to use. There will be student behavioral, emotional and social support given throughout the entire school year. We also hope to achieve substance abuse prevention, on campus mental health services and annual mental health screenings. The schools will also have social and emotional learning programs available to each child early on. School violence has penetrated our nation for quite some time now. School violence is on the rise, and society is wondering why. Violence has injured and killed our youth. The question we must ask is “why are our youth so angry”? The program will work toward providing school and communities in the Chicago land area with the benefit of enhanced school and community based services to make greater progression toward future lives and educational strengths as well as eliminate as much as possible violent behavior in the school environment. Plans will be created with the Board of Education interdisciplinary team to promote and work together to provide a drug-free, weapon free, safe and disciplined school environment.
Specific Objectives
There will be clear behavioral objectives to indicate what will be expected of students after interventions. There isn’t one solution to solving the prevention of school violence. In fact, it is impossible to prevent every attempt and successful act of any criminal behavior. Anti-violence prevention methods are sparse in most schools. School shootings may occur in rural communities, urban communities, and prestige communities where the upper-class resides. Every case is different, what may work at some schools may not work at another. A balance will be created to maintain control that allows each teacher and student engage in learning. Solving specific problems and creating a novel design is my plan. When I was in elementary school, my classmates and I were disciplined by a wooden paddle, standing in the corner while touching our toes, in-school suspension, and mothers’ would come and give whoopings in front of the entire class. The methods that I have listed actually kept us in line. Today, these strategies no longer exist and have been eliminated unfortunately. In today’s school system there are threats against one another with guns, knives, mob action, disrespect toward teachers, theft and bullying that causes children to commit suicide. I want to target the overall violence of weapon use in schools all over the US. My objectives are to create school management-based programs. The program will primarily focus on each individual student behavior, alternative schools, and consistent effective relationships with each local police department. There will be a no tolerance law that states that schools will not tolerate any form of physical abuse, threats, or attempts against one another or the staff. The program will work to modify the environmental factors that are possibly creating criminal like behaviors. This part of the program will also try to change students’ social and physical environment. There will be metal detectors that parents, teachers and students must use and armed police officers. The educational aspect will also offer teaching students behavioral management and nonviolent conflict resolution. Students will also learn about mental illness symptoms and how to seek help if an illness applies.
Significance
There is a growing epidemic of violence among our youth. Youth violence refers to harmful behavior that can start early and continue into adolescent years. The program understands that “violence is a learned behavior. The values, attitudes, and interpersonal skills acquired early in life play a key role in the development of violent behavior”. (Timothy, Linda, Barbara, &Katie 2000-09, P.10) It includes behaviors such as bullying, hitting, punching, kicking, rape, and weapon use. Victims of this behavior can suffer body injuries, or even death. Violence has erupted over the years in schools to a degree that that we have never witnessed. The president of The United States has addressed “school violence”. School violence is on the rise, and is resulting in many fatalities. Millions of Television viewers witnessed the violent beating of an adolescent that resulted in a fatality. This 16 yr old male was beat with 2/4 boards while other youth watched and recorded, he later died in the hospital. Recently, the depiction of a 15yr old girl being gang raped on school grounds was brought to our attention. Again, other youth watched the violence, and did nothing. This young lady life is emotionally and physically scarred. We saw viewers shake their head in disbelief. Parents, educators, and the community want to know how to stop youth violence. Violence is everywhere, however it appears to affect the ones that are exposed to it the most, and that would be our youth.
The proposed project will effectively limit youth violence but we must first recognize the underlying issues behind the violence. These underlying issues are anger, and the youth’s environmental and biological factors. According to Capozzoli and McVey (2000), the definition of anger is “a feeling of indignation and hostility that involves complex emotions and depends on how we evaluate events and/or situations. Our own thought processes perpetuate anger” (p. 125). Another definition of anger is that “It is made up of different reactions that cause us to be irritated, annoyed, furious, frustrated, enraged, and even hurt. How we respond to anger involves the body, behaviors and thought process” (Luhn, 1992, p. 3). Luhn said that it is not the event that causes us to feel angry, but it is how we view the event and provocations that cause us to respond. Scientific knowledge will first be improved by recognizing what works and what doesn’t in deterring school violence. Consistent programs that effectively cut violence are proactive rather than doing being reactive. This will include multiple components that will address the complications of school disruption and violence. Preventative programs such as peer respectfulness, anger management and weapon use prevention has an extreme amount of information that is more useful than technology based prevention plans. Scientific knowledge is useful but getting to the root of the problem by implementing programs has far greater value than metal detectors and video surveillance camera. The treatment and services will be changed and better enhanced with this model because a better environment will be created, early identification and intervention and effective responses to any crisis. My proposal will promote a safe and responsive climate for each student. To solve this problem, outreach in the community must take place. The direct philosophy approach should be implemented, so that a rapport is established with the student. The systems theory would be implemented because school violence is a subsystem of youth violence. Using the systems framework will help school counselors to assess the problem, assess the risk of internal and external factors, and provide intervention. The systems/ ecological approach will address the youth needs encompassing the student, home, school, and community. The program personnel will have an understanding of the family variables in relation to the student capacity to function in a school setting”. (Ambrosino, et al.,2008 p.378) Each worker involved in the program will assess individual and community risk. Strategies that involve students and the community must be employed to decrease youth violence.
Innovation
The application challenges current research by minimizing zero-tolerance laws. Currently the U.S Departments of Education releases issue an annual report on school crimes and safety. The findings of the year of 2004 show that violence decreased in secondary schools. Students that were afraid to attend school decreased as well as the percentages of students who stated they had fights on school property, and students who carried a concealed weapon to school. Today there are interventions that include anger coping programs, skills based teachings of an understanding of violence, empathy towards peers, problem solving amongst peers, session that teaches anger and aggression management and bullying prevention techniques (Furlong, Felix, Sharkey, & Larson 2004). My program challenges these techniques by involving more community outreach. Although there is a significant amount of interventions, techniques, sessions, programs and models that are used, what researchers have failed to use is looking further into the home environment. Many teachers and social workers deal with the behaviors that occur inside the school and call home to elaborate with parents on students behaviors. A child has a fight and in turn is suspended from school. Once the child returns, he is likely to have another fight and is suspended again. My proposed project will allow the team to make home visits to ensure that a safe and healthy environment is given at home. My program believes that it’s impossible for a child to behave well in school without having balance inside their home. Each worker will have a caseload that requires monthly home visits with the parents’ involvement. Some of the Political, economic, and social justice issues related to this problem are “economic disparity, adult drug dealers using youths as pawns, and, most importantly, easy access to guns. From a political standpoint we saw a trend in legislation and policy that continues to this day, as the juvenile system was made to more closely resemble the adult system. Indeed, the distinction has legally blurred as states across the country have made it easier to Prosecute youth as adults in the adult criminal justice system. Meanwhile, research has shown that such harsh tactics do not increase public safety but do perpetuate cycles of crime and chaos in the already troubled personal lives, families, and communities to which these youth belong.” (Krisberg, B 2009 P.1) The community profile of where youth and school violence occurs is inaccurate. Some community members believe that it only occurs in the inner city among minorities. You often hear people being interviewed say, “I can’t believe this happened in our neighborhood”. One stereotype in particular is profiling what youth might commit violence. We have seen over achievers, underachievers, rich, poor, and other ethnic groups engage in school violence. Is it possible that the community fails to acknowledge that violence in a child’s environment might cause aggressive behavior? There are many stereotypes about school violence that should be addressed in the community. There is a saying that says “we are what we eat”. I say we are what we believe. If a youth spends numerous hours playing violent video games, and listening to violent music, they typically feel there is nothing wrong with the violence they purposely exhibit. Eventually, these youth will act out what they hear, see, and experience. To effectively help our youth, we must rid our minds from stereotypes. More resources should be directed toward the root economic and social causes of crime rather than toward law enforcement, and the judicial system.

Approach
The “Let us Live Foundation” will plan systematically problem solving approaches. The project will create, implement, and evaluate comprehensive school violence prevention sectors. We will ask for student volunteers to help reach out to the students. Our volunteers will learn how to identify problems in their peers. The information that they gather will help to assess the needs, future goals and any who has problems that we can address. The proposed project will identify and address the needs of students at all levels of exposure to school violence. Funds will be allocated toward projects, field trips, goal making and goal achieving. Interventions will be given on and off site. Approaches will also be the determining what type of training is required, who will provide it and what will be available. Time commitments will determine how much time will be required by trained individuals, how often will these commitments be made and for how long. Currently the State of California has a program called “TKF Stopping Youth Violence”. This program offers mentorship, skill development workshops and community service programs that lasts throughout the year. My program will offer the same similarities however our school safety team will be more efficient in identifying needs, gathering resources, raising funds, recruiting volunteers, and create community changes. The resources offered are the most critical aspects of this program and this is why the proposal is important. Problems include the lack of knowledge into school violence and the history of it. Society often thinks school violence is violence that is committed on school grounds. Often this is not true, because school violence can happen on the bus, on the way home from school, or in the community. Many times verbal incidents initiate at school, however physical and violent acts are carried over to the community. The root causes of youth violence, and identify economic, political, and social justice issues related to this problem will be explored. We will look at environmental cause; identify the youth at risk, and trends that lead to youth violence. The focus is to find possible solutions to decreasing school’s violence, and explore how society has responded to this problem Schools, parents, and the community are looking for answers to youth violence. Some young people have accepted violence as a means of survival, and a way of life. We must explore the history of youth violence to find an operative solution to the problem. School problems have evolved and developed into violence over time. In the 1970s there was a disciplinary problem with dress code, talking without permission, disruptive behavior in class, or running in the halls. By the end of the 1980s, the problem had increased to fighting. By 1990 gangs, weapons, substance, and violent acts against students and staff increased. Many thought this was an inner city problem that only inflicted minority schools. We found that in 1995 school violence took a shift and left no socioeconomic group out. School violence became prominent in white American forcing educators, congress, parents, and the community to address the problem. School violence rose significantly as school shootings, and other violent acts dominated the media. (Bonilla, 2000) It appears that these violent acts are a direct result of anger, and environment. U.S. Department of Education (2003) and Newsweek (King & Murr, 1998) listed a chronology of school-related shootings in recent years:

1. February 2, 1996: Barry Loukaitis, 14, killed a teacher and two fellow students in Moses Lake, Washington.
2. October 1, 1997: In Pearl High School, Pearl, Mississippi, Luke Wood ham, 16, killed his mother, his ex-girlfriend and another student. The shooting by Wood ham was primarily aimed at a former girlfriend, but wider issues were blamed in the >manifesto=.
3. March 24, 1998: In Jonesboro, Arkansas, Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, killed five (four students and one teacher) on August 11, 1998, they were convicted of murder and sentenced to serve in a detention center until 18 or possibly 21 years of age.
4. May 21, 1998: In Springfield, Oregon, Kipland Kinkel, 15-year-old freshman, opened gunfire in the cafeteria with a rifle. He killed two students and wounded 27 other students (plus two parents). The shootings ended only when another student tackled Kinkel as he attempted to reload. Kinkel was expelled from school for having a stolen pistol in his locker. He murdered his parents and the next day he went on a rampage in his school. His parents were both teachers. On November 10, 1999, Kip Kinkel was sentenced to 111 years in prison despite documented schizophrenia.
5. April 20, 1999: In Columbine High School, Littleton, Colorado, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, opened gunfire in Columbine High School killing one teacher, 12 students and wounding 23 other students. They were teased by jocks and were labeled the Trench Coat Mafia and both committed suicide.
6. May 20, 1999: Thomas J. Solomon, 15, sophomore, opened gunfire in Heritage High School, Conyers, Georgia, wounding six students. He was taking antidepressant drugs (Ritalin) and
7. December 6, 1999, Fort Gibson, Oklahoma: Seventh-grader, Seth Trickey was a religious, straight-A student. He came to school, stood under a tree, pulled out his father=s 9-mm semiautomatic handgun and fired at least 15 rounds into a group of classmates. Four were wounded.
8. February 29, 2000, Mount Morris Township, Michigan: A six-year-old boy, whose identity has not been released, left the crack house where he lived and went to school at Theo J. Buell Elementary. He called out to a fellow first-grader Kayla Rolland, I don’t like you. The boy swung around and shot her with the loaded .32 semiautomatic handgun he had taken from home. Kayla died soon afterward.
9. May 26, 2000, Lake Worth, Florida: Nathaniel Brazill, 13, was sent home for throwing water balloons. Police said that he returned with a .25-cal. semiautomatic handgun, went into an English class and killed teacher Barry Grunow, 35.
10. March 5, 2001, Santee, California: Charles Andrew Williams, 15, opened fire from a bathroom at Santana High, killing two and wounding 13.
11. April 14, 2003, John McDonogh High School, New Orleans, Louisiana: Four gang members, Tyrone Crump (17), Herbert Everett (18), Michelle Fulton (17), and Larry Moses (19), entered the gymnasium and two of the gang members opened fire. The result was that Jonathan Williams dead at the scene and two girls were wounded. These attackers never attended the school (Fox News, April 14, 2003).
12. In March 21, 2005, Red Lake Senior High School, Red Lake, Minnesota: Jeff Weiss, 16, fatally shot five students, a teacher and a security guard before killing himself (Pioneer Press, 2005).
13. The most recent event. December 14, 2012 Sandy Hook School, New Town Connecticut: Adam Lanza, 20, murdered that twenty first graders and six school staff members after killing his Mother with hand guns she owned and thus killing himself.
Remedial Actions
My program is based on the prevention of school violence. When students fail to adhere to the program policies and procedures there will be repercussions. Staff will notify parents and guardians and conduct meetings. There will be a loss of privileges for all students who are placed in the program unwillingly. Each meeting is mandatory and will work on a point system. Points can either be gained or deducted from the child’s bank. Points can be gained for positive behavior in and out of school, helping peers in crisis situation, bringing ideas to the meetings, taking the initiative to better the program and adhering to any and all rules. Points can be taken away by fighting, using or attempting to use weapons, cursing, speaking negatively about a peer, verbal abuse and physical abuse. When points are taken away, depending on the severity of the behavior a child may be reprimanded by in school suspension, out of school suspension that includes community work, law enforcement being involved, visits to local state prisons or jails to give he/she an idea of what life is like inside and possible expulsions to a behavioral targeted school.

Bibliography

Ambrosino, R., Heffernan, J., Shuttlesworth G., Ambrosino, R., (2008). Social Work And Social Welfare. Belmont, Ca: Thomson Higher Education
Bonilla, Denise M., ed. School Violence. New York: H. W. Wilson, 2000. School Violence - The History Of School Discipline, School Shootings, Bullying Shootings Become More Frequent, The Spring Of 1998 Capozzoli, T. K., & McVey, R. S. (2000). Kids killing kids: Managing violence and gangs in schools. Boca Raton, FL: St. Lucie Press.
King, P., & Murr, A. (1998, June 1). A son who spun out of control. Newsweek, 131(22), 32-33.
Luhn, R. R. (1992). Managing anger: Methods for a happier and healthier life. United States of America: Crisp Publications, Inc. Krisberg, B. (2009). Youth Violence: Trends, Myths, and Solutions: House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security
Timothy. N.T., Linda. L. D., Barbara S.L., Katie B ( 2000-09) Best Practice Of Youth Violence prevention: A Source Book For Community Action. National Center For Injury Prevention And Control Of The Center For Disease Control And Prevention
Furlong, M., Felix, E., Sharkey, D., Larson, J. (2004) Preventing School Violence: A Plan for Safe and Engaging Schools. Retrieved from http://www.nasponline.org/resources/principals/studentprevention.pdf