1st Edition

School Rampage Shootings and Other Youth Disturbances Early Preventative Interventions

Edited By Kathleen Nader Copyright 2012
    328 Pages
    by Routledge

    328 Pages
    by Routledge

    Together, School Rampage Shootings and Other Youth Disturbances and its accompanying downloadable resources provide a complete toolkit for using early preventative interventions with elementary-school age children. In ten thoughtful, clearly written chapters, both new and experienced practitioners will find a wealth of research- and evidence-based techniques that link personal child and childhood environmental conditions to a number of symptoms, disturbances, and disorders in youth or adulthood, including the expression of rampage violence. In the second part of this indispensable collection – the accompanying downloadable resources – practitioners will find worksheets and handouts that translate useful techniques into reality and are sure to make any practice come alive.

    Part I Factors that Contribute to School Rampage Shootings

    Chapter 1 School Violence: Rampage Shootings and Factors Contributing  to Them
    Kathleen Nader, D.S.W. & Wallis Nader, independent scholar (confirmed)
    This chapter examines the issues relevant to school rampage shootings and introduces the premise (early prevention) and focus of the book – an understanding of the youths who engage in such violence, the factors contributing to their violence, and methods of early intervention that may help to prevent such violence. The chapter identifies theories and findings regarding school multiple violence and its perpetrators. It includes a discussion of the contributions of trauma, humiliation, exclusion, and rage to school mass violence.

    Chapter 2 Prelude to a School Shooting
    William Pollack
    Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
    Director, Centers for Men & Young Men, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA
    Chapter 2 describes youths who have committed school rampage shootings, the actions and behaviors that characteristically precede school shootings, and the previously documented tendency of people not to report the overt and discrete warnings. The chapter includes the traits and background factors identified in school shooters, and the pitfalls of trying to rely on them to identify who will engage in rampage killings. This chapter will include qualities observed in school shooters, such as personality, traits, habits, medical/psychological history, and issues related to neurobiology and their relationships to school shootings.

    Chapter 3 The School Environment and School Rampage Killings
    John Eller, Assistant Professor, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
    This chapter discusses school environmental factors identified in association with school rampage shootings. Among issues linked to school violence are school size, atmosphere, and tolerance for such behaviors as bullying. The chapter includes a discussion of popularity and its role in victimization. A brief comparison is made regarding the differences and similarities of factors that contribute to violence in general and rampage shootings.

    Chapter 4 Home and Community Environments and School Rampage Killings
    James Garbarino and Edmund Bruyere, Loyola University, Chicago
    This chapter includes a brief discussion of some of the home and community environmental factors that have been blamed for or have emerged as relevant to school rampage attacks. A number of home and community environmental variables have been linked to aggression, such as disturbed attachment relationships and styles, poverty, values, violent media, and exposure to violence or other traumas. Some of these and other issues have been blamed or confirmed for a number of rampage shooters—faulty attachments; violent media (movies, television, music, and videogames); the internet and the perpetuation of violent cultures (e.g., Goth culture); lax gun control; prescription of medications that may result in violence in youths; and inadequate mental health interventions. This chapter will separate myth from observation.

    Part II  Early Preventive Interventions

    Chapter 5 Teaching Coping and Social skills to Elementary School Children
    Christine Mello, Psy. D. and Kathleen Nader, D.S.W.
    School Psychologist, Valley Central School District, New York State
    This chapter discusses the need to teach coping and social skills as well as to create an environment in which youths assist each other and their talents are enhanced. The use of books and classroom exercises that fit into the classroom curriculum without interfering with teaching are discussed.

    Chapter 6 Treating Insecure and Disorganized Attachments in Schools
    Ellen Moss, Professor, Montreal, Canada
    This chapter discusses the associations of secure, insecure, and disorganized insecure attachments especially in relationship to aggression and other behaviors that are problematic or helpful at school. The chapter will discuss ways to identify youths with faulty attachments and methods that teachers and clinicians can use to assist these children at school.

    Chapter 7 Issues of empathy and how to teach it
    Kimberly Schonert-Reichl
    Associate Professor, Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology and Special Education, University of British Columbia
    This chapter will discuss the issue of empathy and emotion recognition. It will briefly discuss early onset aggressive youth and youths who lack empathy (psychopathy). The chapter will provide methods of teaching empathy and of dealing with the nonempathetic youth.

    Chapter 8 •Making Competition Healthy
    Allison Spencer & Kathleen Nader
    School Teacher, formerly of Waldon Schools, Orange County, CA
    This chapter will focus on issues related to competition in schools. It will compare healthy competition versus the kind of exclusion-producing competition or competitiveness that may result in relational aggression and youth stress.  The chapter will discuss creating an atmosphere that produces healthy competition.

    Chapter 9 • Bullying and Issues of Self-Control: Teaching self-control in and out of schools
    Deborah Espelage
    Child Development Division, Educational Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL
    Bullying and problematic self-control have contributed to aggression in schools and have been a part of rampage shootings. These two issues will be discussed briefly. Interventions for bullying and methods of teaching self-control in elementary schools will be described. Among the inventions described will be peer interventions for bullying.

    Chapter 10 •Creating a Supportive Environment: Peer Support and Adult Support
    Debra Pepler, LaMarsh Centre for Research on Violence and Conflict Resolution
    Sufficient support systems have been lacking in the school and personal lives of school rampage shooters. This chapter will discuss youths’ needs for social support, the power of social support to foster positive development and healing, and methods of creating supportive environments in schools. It will examine the efficacy of establishing peer support interventions and increasing adult support as a preventive tool. Higher levels of social support have been documented as a protective factor, for example, for youths traumatized by a variety of experiences. Bullying, in the form of physical or relational aggression, is a traumatic experience and has been a factor in some rampage shootings. The importance of creating supportive home environments, especially for at-risk youths, will be addressed.

    Chapter 11 • Early interventions: Some Conclusions about the Prevention of Youthful Violence at Schools
    Kathleen Nader &  William Pollack
    This chapter will draw conclusions from the other chapters. It will include issues related to age, brain development, learning, trauma symptoms, and aggression, as well.

    Biography

    Formerly director of evaluations for UCLA’s childhood trauma and sudden bereavement program, since 1978, Kathleen Nader, DSW, has been a director of Two Suns Childhood Trauma Program, Texas, USA. She is an internationally recognized expert on child trauma and posttraumatic stress and is the author of Understanding and Assessing Trauma in Children and Adolescents: Measures, Methods, and Youth in Context (Routledge, 2008).

    "School Rampage Shootings and Other Youth Disturbances will be a turning point in efforts to offset, control, eliminate, and prevent school violence. Kathy Nader has once again led the way in understanding and helping traumatized children and, equally importantly, heading off rampage shootings." - Charles R. Figley, Tulane University, Louisiana, USA, and coeditor of Combat Stress Injury: Theory, Research, and Management

    "This wise, practical, and helpful book will support school leaders promoting the safe and civil schools that are the foundation for student learning and positive youth development. This volume synthesizes recent risk-prevention and health-promotion research and best practices. It also includes practical suggestions and that will be of great interest to K–12 building, district, and state leaders." - Jonathan Cohen, President, National School Climate Center and Columbia University, New York, USA

    "This is a terrific book. In a field rife with oversimplification and facile solutions, School Rampage Shootings and Other Youth Disturbances is a comprehensive examination of youth violence that synthesizes a voluminous literature from developmental and social-ecological perspectives. A formidable team of experts has contributed chapters on the role of untreated trauma, insecure attachment, and peer victimization as risk factors for violence. These are complemented by chapters on the protective value of prevention programs designed to establish a supportive school climate, reduce bullying, and facilitate socio-emotional development." - Dewey Cornell, University of Virginia, USA