School-based Strategies for Violence Prevention

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School-based Strategies for Violence Prevention

• Jeffrey Sprague, Ph.D.
• University of Oregon Institute on Violence and
  Destructive Behavior

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Goals of the conference

• Review trends and causal factors regarding school
  violence
• Outline a plan to improve school climate and
  safety.
• Secure the school building using crime prevention
  through environmental design techniques
• Set methods for identifying violent and
  antisocial youth
• Create a positive, inclusive school culture
• Address the peer culture and its problems of
  bullying and harassment and,
• Involve parents in making the school safer.

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Trends and Causal Factors

• The prevalence of school shootings is declining
• The number of deaths and injuries per incident
  has increased
• Shootings have been prevented due to reporting by
  peers
• Copycat incidences are common, suggesting
  preplanning

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Trends and Causal Factors

• Violence prevention remains a top national
  concern
• School personnel, students and parents fear
  tragedy
• Societal forces are spilling over into schools
• Violent and uncivil media
• Stressed and dysfunctional families
• Alcohol and Other Drug use
• Child Neglect and Abuse

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Toxic Peer Culture

• Bullying, mean-spirited teasing, and harassment
  are normative in many schools
• Peers often support the behavior
• Adults often support bullying by not responding
• 2/3s of school shooters interviewed by the
  Secret Service were chronic bully victims

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Four Sources of Vulnerability to School Violence

• Typical to focus only on characteristics of
  troubled youth
• Three additional sources are well documented
• Assess and take action on all four
• Physical layout of the school building
• Administrative, teaching and management practices
• Characteristics of the surrounding
  neighborhood(s)
• Characteristics of the students enrolled in the
  school.

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Outline a plan to improve school climate and
safety

• Secure the school building using crime prevention
  through environmental design techniques
• Set methods for identifying violent and
  antisocial youth
• Create a positive, inclusive school culture
• Address the peer culture and its problems of
  bullying and harassment
• Involve parents in making the school safer

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Secure the school building

• Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design
• Using knowledge of architecture and ecology to
  predict and prevent school violence
• Assess the school
• Intervene
• Schneider, T., Walker, H., Sprague, J. (2000).
  Safe school design A handbook for educational
  leaders. ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational
  Management. College of Education. University of
  Oregon. Eugene, OR.

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Secure the school building

• Closed Campus
• Security cameras
• Staff and visitor identification badges
• Volunteer supervisors
• Campus supervisors

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Secure the school Building

• 2-Way communication
• Child study teams
• Safety committee
• Lockdown procedure
• Confidential reporting system
• School resource officer

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Identify violent and antisocial youth

• Discuss the prevalence and long term outcomes of
  antisocial behavior
• List developmental pathways
• Describe identification methods

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The Challenge of Antisocial Behavior

• How extensive is the problem?
• 2-6 of the general population display chronic
  antisocial behavior
• 12-22 of youth under 18 need mental health
  services (Surgeon General, 2000)
• 8 of Lane County, Oregon youth (10-17) had a
  Youth Services referral in 1999
• 20 of offenders committed 87 of all new crime
• 6-9 of children in schools account for gt50 of
  discipline referrals (Sprague et al., 1999)

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Developmental Pathways

• Loeber and Farrington (1998), Patterson et al.,
  (1997)
• Age of onset
• Early starters (life course persistent)
• Early first arrest
• Roots in family/childhood
• Worse long term outcome
• Adolescent limited Late Starters
• Late elementary or middle school
• Less at risk
• Better long term outcome

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What are long term outcomes?

• High school dropout
• Delinquency
• Substance abuse
• Mental health problems
• Family violence
• Employment problems
• Relationship problems
• Dishonorable discharge
• Medical problems
• Early death

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Risk is cumulative

• More exposure is worse
• Different risk factors predict similar outcome
• No one formula will predict all negative outcome
  for all subtypes
• internalizing
• externalizing

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Protective factors offset the effects of risk
factors

• They reduce the probability of negative outcome
• Prevent onset of risk behavior
• Buffer against risk exposure
• Promote behavioral competence and are indicated
  by behavioral competence

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How did risk and protective factors work in your
life?

• Important adult in your life
• Family
• Positive activities
• Unhealthy activities

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Key Predictors what do we look for?

• Screening activities need to account for these
  variables
• Behavior patterns
• Ecology (life experiences such as family, school,
  community)
• Psychopathy (traits, temperament, biology)

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Predictive Behavioral Characteristics

• Early onset
• High intensity
• More frequent
• More than one setting
• More varied behavior pattern

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Ecological Challenges Facing School-age Children

• Violent juvenile crimes triple during the hours
  of 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.
• Children are most likely to be victims of a
  violent crime by a non family member between 2
  p.m. and 6 p.m.
• Children without adult supervision are at
  significantly greater risk truancy from school,
  stress, poor grades, risk-taking
  behavior,pregnancy, and substance abuse

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Effects of Media Exposure

• Three main effects on viewers
• Direct become more aggressive and develop
  favorable attitudes
• Desensitization less sensitive to pain and
  suffering of others
• Mean world syndrome the world is mean and
  dangerous

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Barriers to identification of at-risk students

• Concern for labels and stigma
• Prefer false negatives to false positives
• Protesting the percentage of children receiving
  services
• Developmental optimism
• Defending diversity
• Denying deviance

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Multiple Gating Strategy

• Gate 1Teacher nomination
• Gate 2 Multi-informant ratings
• Gate 3 Intensive assessment
• Gate 4 Resistance to intervention

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Who will be a repeat juvenile offender?

• OSLC Study of Lane County Youth
• Low academic achievement/special education
• Mother/father ever arrested
• Significant family transitions (divorce, new
  marriage)
• Early contacts with law enforcement
• Client of child protective services

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Who Will Become Serious and Violent Offenders?

• Strongest predictors (Farrington, 1998)
• Age 6-11 indicators
• Drug and alcohol use
• Affiliation with deviant peers
• Early offender
• Age 12-17 Indicators
• Affiliation with deviant peers
• Social contacts
• Severity of offenses

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Focus on Student and Family Strengths

• All children and families have strengths
• Motivation is increased when strengths are
  described
• Lack of strength is not a deficit----it is a lack
  of opportunity
• Identify strengths in the screening process
• Supports must focus on building strengths

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Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale

• Epstein and Sharma (1998) www.proedinc.com
• Interpersonal strength
• Family involvement
• Intra personal strength
• School functioning
• Affective strength

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Prevention or Intervention ?

• Prevention is an outcome
• Intervention is the process or approach
• Primary Prevention (Universal)
• Prevent harm
• Secondary Prevention (Selective)
• Reverse harm
• Tertiary Prevention (Targeted)
• Reduce harm

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What works?

• Begin early in childhood (never too late, never
  too early!)
• Comprehensive in nature
• Offered continuously and consistently (Start
  Early and Target Everybody)
• Intensify services at critical developmental
  periods

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What works?

• Universal screening for adjustment and mental
  health problems
• Adult mentors
• Supervision, monitoring
• Academic support
• Alternative discipline
• Parent/family involvement and intervention
• Service coordination
• Career awareness and vocational training

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Create a Positive, Inclusive School Culture

• Promote a set of positive values about how we
  treat each other
• Teach students to separate their lives from the
  exaggerated media images of violence and
  disrespect
• Establish school-wide rules and behavioral
  expectations
• Use data to monitor successes and hot spots
• Support and train staff over multiple years

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Foundations of an effective discipline and safety
plan

• Priority for change and resources (site council
  and staff)
• Commitment to participate by all faculty and
  staff
• Use of research-based or validated programs
• Visible and Supportive Leadership (team member)
• Embedded and long term training of a school team
• Parent and community support of appropriate
  academic and social behavior

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EBS is a comprehensive, school-based intervention

• Problem behaviors are defined for students and
  staff members
• Appropriate, positive behaviors are defined for
  students and staff
• Students are taught these positive behaviors
  directly, just like academic skills
• Effective incentives and motivational systems are
  developed and carried out to encourage students
  to behave differently

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Effective Behavioral Support

• Www.pbis.org
• Staff commits to staying with the intervention
  over the long term and to monitoring, supporting,
  coaching, debriefing, and providing booster
  shots as necessary to maintain the achieved
  gains
• Staff receives training and regular feedback
  about effective implementation of the
  interventions and,
• Systems for data-based evaluation and feedback
  are established.
• Office discipline referrals, suspensions and
  expulsions
• www.swis.org

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Address the Peer Culture and its Problems of
Bullying and Harassment

• Adopt and implement whole school violence
  prevention plans
• By Kids for Kids
• Students Against Violence Everywhere
• Not My Friends, Not My School
• Teach anger management and conflict resolution
  techniques as part of the regular curriculum
• Second Step Violence Prevention Curriculum
• Bully-proof the School Setting
• Bullyproofing your school
• Steps to Respect

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Bullying and HarassmentWhat Is It?

• Definitions of bullying
• The recurring exposure, over time, to negative
  actions by one or more others (Olweus, 1994)
• A form of aggressive behavior that involves
  coercion, intimidation, and threats to one's
  safety or well-being (Walker, Colvin Ramsey
  1995)

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Types of Harassment and Hate Crime

• Race
• Color
• Sex
• Disability
• National Origin
• Religion
• Sexual Orientation
• Other forms prescribed by local or state law

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Bullying and Harassment Facts and Figures

• 90 of elementary and middle school students in
  the U.S. Said that they were bullied or harassed
  during some point in school (Shelly, 1985)
• There are 160,000 student absences a day due to
  fear of bullying and harassment (Lee, 1993)
• As many as 14 of all students suffer severe
  trauma as a result of bullying (Hoover, Oliver,
  and Hazler 1992)

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Harassment Facts and Figures

• 68 of girls and 39 of boys, grades 8-11 report
  sexual harassment
• 20-25 of students report being victimized in
  racial or ethnic incidents over the course of a
  school year

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A comprehensive approach to eliminating
harassment and hate crime

• Develop written policies
• Identify and respond to all incidents of
  harassment and violence
• Provide formal complaint procedures
• Create a school climate that supports racial,
  cultural, and other forms of diversity
• Work with law enforcement agencies to address and
  prevent hate crimes and civil rights violations

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Assessing Harassment and Hate Crime

• What has been done to prevent bullying and
  harassment in your school?
• Do you have a grievance procedure?
• Are you prepared to receive and respond to
  complaints?
• Do you foster an atmosphere of prevention?
• Have you reached out to vulnerable populations?

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Creating a supportive school climate

• Provide information about the anti-bullying and
  harassment program
• Post a summary
• Explain the procedures
• Invest in training school board members,
  administrators, and staff
• Provide training appropriate for role
• Train employees to investigate complaints
• Train staff to stop harassment
• Educate employees on diversity principles

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Educate students

• Students should be able to
• Identify harassment
• Understand causes and effects
• Oppose harassment
• Be comfortable reporting harassment
• For more information go to www.ed.gov/pubs/harassm
  ent/

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Involve Parents in Making the School Safer

• Create a parent advisory-planning group
• Advocate for parents to teach nonviolence to
  their children
• Advocate for securing weapons at home and gun
  safety instruction
• Make available to parents solid information on
  effective parenting

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Five Recommended Parenting Practices

• Firm and fair discipline (establish compliance)
• Monitoring and supervision
• Parent involvement in childrens lives
• Positive family management techniques
• Crisis intervention and problem solving

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Closing

• Outline a plan to improve school climate and
  safety.
• Secure the school building using crime prevention
  through environmental design techniques
• Set methods for identifying violent and
  antisocial youth
• Create a positive, inclusive school culture
• Address the peer culture and its problems of
  bullying and harassment and,
• Involve parents in making the school safer

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What works?

• Begin early in childhood (never too late, never
  too early!)
• Comprehensive in nature
• Offered continuously and consistently (Start
  Early and Target Everybody)
• Intensify services at critical developmental
  periods

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Recommended Web Resources

• Institute on Violence and Destructive Behavior
• 541-346-3592
• http//darkwing.uoregon.edu/ivdb/
• SWIS data base for office referrals www.swis.org
• Oregon Social Learning Center www.oslc.org
• OSEP Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions
  and Supports
• www.pbis.org
• Hamilton Fish Institute on School and Community
  Safety
• www.hamfish.org
• Prevention Research Center (Mark Greenberg)
• www.psu.edu/dept/prevention

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Family Information Resources

• The Beach Center on Families and Disability.
  http//www.lsi.ukans.edu/beach/center
• Boys Towns USA http//www.boystown.org
• Federation of Families for Childrens Mental
  Health http//www.ffcmh.org/enghome.htm
• National Parent Network on Disabilities
  http//www.npnd.org
• Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights
  (PACER) Center http//www.pacer.org
• Project for Parents of Children with
  Emotional/Behavior Disorders http//www.pacer.org/
  parent/ebd.htm
• Parents Guide to Functional Assessment
• http//darkwing.uoregon.edu/ttobin