Article

Experts advise parents to address students' fears, maybe by stressing rarity of shootings

Tuesday, October 03, 2006 • BY PEGGY O'CROWLEY • Star-Ledger Staff

Six teenage girls held hostage and one slain in a suburban Colorado high school. A principal killed in a rural Wisconsin school. And yesterday, the fatal shootings of several girls in a one-room schoolhouse in Pennsylvania's Amish country.

While the randomness of three school shootings in a week raises the fear it can happen anywhere, parents and students should remember incidents like these remain rare, trauma experts said.

"We have to explain to children and teens that we're much more aware of this now because of this cluster of events, and it makes us think this is happening everywhere," said Donna Gaffney, a Seton Hall University professor who specializes in children and trauma. "There are thousands and thousands of schools in the United States, and it only happened in three."

"I don't think this is a situation for people to be nervous," said Steve Crimando, the director of training for the disaster and terrorism branch of the state Division of Mental Health Services.

Crimando, who analyzes risk factors in terrorism and violence, called the shootings by adults "asymmetrical," saying the probability was low but the consequence high in terms of public reaction. The shootings did share characteristics, however: In Colorado, a drifter took female high school students hostage, sexually assaulted them, and killed one before turning the gun on himself. In yesterday's incident, a man took about a dozen girls hostage and killed several before shooting himself.

"One (incident) may have pushed someone else who had this in their mind," he said, "but I don't see the idea of contagion," or a rise in copycat crimes. Violence initiated by students, like the incident last week in which a high school student shot and killed a principal, is more likely to provoke contagion, as are teen suicides, he said.

Still, any kind of slaying in a school setting is rare.

According to the 2005 Indicators of School Crime and Safety report by the National Center on Educational Statistics, there were 15 school-associated homicides and eight suicides among children ages 5 to 19 in 2002-03, compared to a total school population of 54.2 million in that age group.

When children show concern, their parents should discuss the events with them, Gaffney said, "because school is supposed to be a safe place. Kids may be going to school feeling, 'Am I going to be safe here?' and that's frightening."

Children will have different reactions depending on their age, and responding appropriately is important, said Stephen Brock, a member of the National Emergency Assistance Team of the National Association of School Psychologists.

"Younger children will define how scary or frightening the situation is depending on how mom and dad deal with it," said Brock, a professor at California State University in Sacramento who trains school psychologists. "So you have to be truthful and honest and acknowledge it happened but also let them know school is one of the safest places they can be."

Parents should take their cues from the child, answering questions but not offering any more information, he said. Parents also can let children know the events causing fear can make adults more alert to potential danger in their own communities, Gaffney and Crimando said.

"It makes us more alert than we ordinarily would be," said Gaffney, the author of "The Seasons of Grief: Helping Children Grow Through Loss."

"Everyone is worried about it -- the community, parents, children and the schools -- and that makes us do a better job making sure everyone is safe," Gaffney said.

Crimando said a discussion should include a reminder to children to "use their fears to motivate them to be vigilant. If they have concerns about another student or an adult in their midst, they should bring those to a responsible adult."

Word to kids: School still safe

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