Politics & Government

Education Leaders Focus on Gun Violence Prevention

The San Mateo County Office of Education co organized a summit called "Beyond Newtown: How to Ensure Safe Schools and Communities," with U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier.

By BCN

Hundreds of leaders in education, law enforcement, politics and mental health services gathered in Redwood Shores today for a summit organized by U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier on preventing gun violence in San Mateo County schools.

Speier said the main motivation behind the forum, called "Beyond Newtown: How To Ensure Safe Schools and Communities," was to bring together important community stakeholders to discuss various approaches to preventing and responding to incidents of mass violence in schools.

"If we want safe schools and safe communities, we have to be willing to work together," Speier said.

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Speakers addressed a wide range of subjects, including mental health issues among students, school culture, sharing records between schools to better track students with behavior issues, and promoting student-led anti-bullying campaigns.

Speier said that taking a close look at incidents of school shootings like in Newtown, Conn. where 26 people were killed, and at Virginia Tech, where a mentally ill shooter killed 32 people, there were warning signs from the shooters that were missed or ignored by people in their communities.

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"More often than not, when you go back and look at these cases, there were missed clues," Speier said.

"We need to locate these gaps in information sharing," she said.

According to Jei Africa, a health equity manager for San Mateo County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services, identifying students who might be ostracized or in distress is a complex process, one that needs to involve school staff, the student body, as well as parents and families.

"We feel it's important to teach parents the warning signs that something is going on in their family," Africa said. Young people who become isolated, spend a lot of time in their rooms or start performing poorly in school are often in need of some sort of intervention, whether it be counseling, guidance or special education, she
said.

Stephen Kaplan, the Director of San Mateo County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services, said that detecting students in distress is complicated by the Internet, where intense bullying is prevalent and often anonymous.

On the Internet and in social networks like Facebook, students can easily become victims of bullying or verbal harassment that includes "rumors, lies and sexual jokes," Kaplan said.

Victims of harassment often become depressed and feel hopeless, Kaplan said. Identifying those individuals and getting them help is critical to keeping students and schools safe.

"The importance of identifying them is critical," he said. "The earlier we can intervene, the better." Speaking as part of a panel on school and community safety, San Mateo police Chief Susan Manheimer said school districts and police need to get better at sharing information and preventing behavior like bullying that can lead to violence.

"We need to know we've done everything we can on the side of intervention and prevention," she said. "We need to connect the dots and look at potential threats."

San Mateo Union High School District Superintendent Scott Laurence said that effective mental health services need to be available to students in distress.

"We need to have partners in the mental health community," he said. "We need to collaborate."

Speier agreed, saying that cuts to mental health services across all levels of society have put a lot of pressure on schools to identify young people who need help and provide them with services.

"Schools have become the source of mental health services by default," she said.

Following today's summit, Speier said that her office will help form three task forces that will continue the effort to make San Mateo County schools, students and communities more safe. Those three groups will focus on guns, mental health, and communication between schools and law enforcement, she said.


What are some of the ways that schools can help prevent violence? Scroll down and tell us in the comments.

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