By Andra Bryan Stefanoni
Globe Staff Writer
PITTSBURG, Kan. —
Statistics gathered by Philip J. Lazarus, a nationally recognized psychologist, professor and director of the school psychology program at Florida International University, show that more teens have died of suicide than of cancer, birth defects, AIDS, pneumonia, influenza and chronic lung disease combined.
And if left unchecked, he said, unresolved issues have the potential to result in school-related tragedies that garner national headlines.
“I firmly believe that we are neglecting the emotional well-being of our nation’s youth,” Lazarus wrote in a recently published article. “While the IQ of the nation’s students has increased about a third of a point every year, the emotional health of the nation’s students has deteriorated dramatically during the past 30 years.”
Lazarus writes from experience: During his career, he has interviewed youths involved in violent school acts, has provided crisis assistance in the aftermath of school shootings, and has consulted with the FBI on profiling school shooters, among other things.
At Pittsburg State University on Monday, Lazarus presented “Creating Safe and Responsive Schools through Violence Prevention and Threat Assessment” to a handful of public school administrators, teachers and psychologists in an effort to help them improve the odds for prevention.
He guided participants through what leads to violent acts, the profiles of those who pose a risk of violence, and how to prevent violence at their institutions.
School violence
Lazarus told the group that about eight to 10 school shootings take place per year in the United States, meaning that a person would be more likely to die at home or in a neighborhood.
But when school shootings do happen, the impact is felt in communities for years to come, he said.
“About two-thirds of such incidents occur with weapons students got from their own homes, friends or relatives Ñ or in many cases, were given as gifts,” Lazarus said. “This points to the need to consider the issues of safe gun storage.”
In more than three-quarters of the cases, he said, other students knew about the attack well in advance, including the time and date it was to happen, and some encouraged the action as a way for the shooter to appear tough.
In an equal number of cases, an adult had expressed concern about the student and his behavior beforehand, including one student who wrote a disturbing poem in an English class and one who told a friend that he wanted to kill someone, Lazarus said.
“In considering prevention, our inquiry should include efforts to gather as much information as possible from friends and schoolmates,” he said. “Many times the barrier is that not all these sources are interconnected, so a lot of people might be alert to it, but there isn’t a coordinated communication there to put the pieces together.”
About shooters
“In many cases, being bullied played a key role; they were picked on, or, in some cases, really horrendous harassment occurred,” Lazarus said. “This is why we should support ongoing efforts to combat bullying in American schools.”
Lazarus recommended that school personnel determine how to best respond to students who are known to be in trouble, not just identifying those who might be planning an attack.
“These are youth who have sad, traumatized lives,” he said. “They probably don’t have an adult they feel connected with. They feel alone. They might be able to cope with one or two difficulties, but they might have seven all at the same time, and their solution is to terminate themselves or others to get rid of their pain.”
Troubled youths
Lazarus described in detail the risk factors that lead up to school shootings, including youths fitting into one of three pathways: conflict/traumatized, anti-social/psychopathic or psychotic.
A role-playing “mock interview” session among the participants let them play the parts of school psychologist, troubled youth and others who might intervene.
“It’s been very good,” said Terry Higgins, a teacher at Carl Junction (Mo. ) High School. “I’ve learned a lot to be able to take back to school.”
For parents, Lazarus’ advice is to make sure your children know who to communicate with at school if they have concerns about classmates, bullying or safety.
“Parents also should check to see that schools have compliance plans and crisis response teams in place, and ensure that there is a program that focuses on bullying prevention and conflict mediation,” he said.
Background
Philip J. Lazarus is a former chairman of the National Emergency Assistance Team of the National Association of School Psychologists, a group that has provided crisis assistance in the aftermath of multiple school shootings across the nation.
