Main Points 1. Virginia schools are safer than the public - PDF document

School Safety in Virginia April 22, 2019 Dewey G. Cornell, Ph. D. School Safety in Virginia • Professor of Education in the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. Dew ey Cornell, Ph.D. • Director of the UVa Youth Violence Curry School of Education and Hum an Developm ent University of Virginia Project and faculty associate of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public 434-924-8929 Policy. Email: youthvio@virginia.edu • Trained as forensic clinical psychologist Website: youthviolence.edschool.virginia.edu • Lead author of Authoritative School Climate Survey • Developed Virginia Student Threat Assessment Guidelines 1 2 2 0 1 8 -1 9 Research Team Main Points 1. Virginia schools are safer than the public perceives. 2. Threat assessment is an effective safety strategy. 3. School climate assessment is a valuable safety tool. This work was supported in part by Grant # NI J 2014-CK-BX-0004 awarded by the National I nstitute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Justice or the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services. Co-author Dewey Cornell is the primary developer of the Virginia Student Threat Assessment Guidelines and author of the manual, Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines. 3 4 School violence has declined. 25 22 Crim es per 1 ,0 0 0 students 20 18 14 14 15 12 12 10 10 9 9 10 8 7 6 6 5 5 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 3 3 0 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Serious violent crime rate in U.S. schools Indicators of school crime and safety; 2018. Table 2.1. National Crime Victimization Study data reported by National Center for Education Statistics (Musu et al., 2019). https: / / today.yougov.com/ topics/ politics/ articles-reports/ 2019/ 04/ 18/ columbine-anniversary-school-shootings-NRA-poll 5 6 Dewey Cornell, Ph.D. 1

School Safety in Virginia April 22, 2019 389 shootings in 6 years since Sandy Hook shooting. Maps like this convey the idea that school shootings are pervasive. https://everytownresearch.org/gunfire-in-school/# 7 8 Six Years of How many shootings outside of schools? Shootings  389 in schools versus CDC Annual Records  600,000 outside 36,000 deaths schools + 63,000 injuries For every shooting in a ~ 1 0 0 ,0 0 0 total school, there are 1,500 shootings outside of school Shooting deaths from: National Vital Statistics http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/dataRestriction_inj.html Shooting injuries from: http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/nfirates2001.html 9 10 Six Years of The problem is Shootings gun violence, not school violence. ► 389 in schools versus ► 600,000 outside There is no special schools kind of violence For every shooting in a found only in school, schools. there are 1,500 outside of school 11 12 Dewey Cornell, Ph.D. 2

School Safety in Virginia April 22, 2019 2005 ‐ 2010 Homicides in 37 States 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 W hen w as the last tim e a Residence 9847 Street 4455 student w as m urdered at one Parking lot/garage 1209 of Virginia’s K-1 2 public Outdoors 629 schools? Restaurant/bar 533 Restaurants are 10x more 492 Store/gas station dangerous than schools. Public building/business 288 Homes are 200x more dangerous than schools. Hotel/motel 211 School 49 Source: FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) database. Selected locations. School includes colleges. See Nekvasil & Cornell (2015) Psychology of Violence, 5, 236-245. 13 14 Costly Reactions to School Violence Schools need building security, but how m uch? The fear of school shootings can create pressure to spend excessive am ounts on security m easures. W e need a balance betw een security and prevention. http: / / www.bloomberg.com/ news/ articles/ 2013-11-14/ schools-boosting-security-spending-after-newtown-massacre 15 16 Bullet-Resistant Entrances 17 18 Dewey Cornell, Ph.D. 3

School Safety in Virginia April 22, 2019 Safe Room s High Security Military Entrances https: / / www.newsweek.com/ oklahoma-schools-storm-shelters-shooting-824328 19 20 Research on School Security I n contrast, hundreds of studies show that school m ental health services and counseling reduce student violence. https: / / www.washingtonpost.com/ education/ 2019/ 04/ 16/ study-theres-no-evidence-that- Little evidence of increased safety. Concerns hardening-schools-make-kids-safer-gun-violence-actually- works/ ?utm_term= .3410e84305a8&wpisrc= nl_answer&wpmm= 1 that students are m ore anxious. 21 22 Professional Standards for Num ber of Students per Staff Mem ber W e should prevent Professional Virginia shootings rather than Standard Average just prepare for them . Counselors 2 5 0 3 4 6 Psychologists 7 0 0 1 ,6 2 3 Social W orkers 2 5 0 2 ,0 6 7 Source: https: / / www.aclu.org/ issues/ juvenile-justice/ school-prison-pipeline/ cops-and-no-counselors 23 24 Dewey Cornell, Ph.D. 4

School Safety in Virginia April 22, 2019 Threat Assessm ent in Virginia 2 0 0 8 – Higher Education A key lesson from 2 0 1 3 – K-1 2 Schools school shootings is to respond to threatening behavior long before an attack. 25 26 Threat Assessm ent is a W hat is Threat Assessm ent? violence prevention strategy. 1. Identification : friends, family members, or others seek Threat assessm ent is a problem - help when concerned about someone in solving approach to violence distress/threatening violence. prevention that involves 2. Evaluation : Threat assessment team evaluates the assessm ent and intervention w ith seriousness of the threat. persons w ho have threatened violence in som e w ay. 3. Intervention : The team initiates assistance to address the underlying problem, conflict or need. In the most serious cases, protective action is taken. 27 28 Accurate Threat Assessm ent Accurate Threat Assessm ent Avoids 2 Errors … Avoids 2 Errors … 1 . Over-reaction 2 . Under-Reaction 29 30 Dewey Cornell, Ph.D. 5