Yet another tragic loss of innocent life today in Santa Fe, Texas. Yet again! As a school nurse, and one who is close to your children and my children, every day during school, these senseless losses tear at my heart...and yet again, it happened today - again.
So here is the relevance of my post to "allnurses." Nurses are, probably, the most accomplished and innovative, critical thinking, problems solving, life saving, "git-er-done," people on the planet. It appears "the experts" have contributed only to reliving the definition of insanity in regard to school shooting; doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Sometimes it takes someone from the outside looking in to find the golden key.
I am requesting your ideas, recommendations, suggestions, thoughts, etc., regarding what you think would prevent future school shootings; as you would a head to toe assessment, identification, and intervention of your patient, so to speak. Or from any other relationship you have to school age children.
I am requesting genuine input. Sarcasm and political attacks are not welcome. If you don't have a contribution you think would be helpful, please don't.
If this turns out how I'm hoping it will, I intend to print the entire thread and mail it to the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott; opinions from nurses from around the world - how to stop the insanity of school shootings!
GUN FREE ZONES ARE TODAY'S KILLING FIELDS, GUN CONTROL WILL ONLY EXPAND THEM. THERE ARE TOO MANY FIREARMS IN CIRCULATION FOR THERE TO EVER BE AN EFFECTIVE BAN (it is reported that the numbers are north of 600 million)
Benjamin Franklin said it best,
"Those who would trade freedom for security deserve neither."
Guns aren't going anywhere, stop the delusion. I agree there needs to be better background checks however and maybe required gun safety courses.
I always laugh when people talk about rounding up guns or forcing gun turn in at large. Who is going to enforce that? I guarantee you won't get cops or guard/reserve members to go door to door taking people's guns (speaking from military experience by the way). Step back into reality people.
I agree with some other poster that the "glamorizing" of these shootings add to the issue. These shooters become famous. Nicholas Cruz who shot the school up in Florida was in the news for getting HUNDREDS of letters while in jail after killing all those people. They said girls were sending him suggestive material and pictures, sending him gifts....Why would you put that information in the news??? The kid in Texas apparently had been bullied, been turned down by a girl etc. He sees this other kid getting notoriety and attention from what he did, I am not saying that's the cause but it doesn't help. The media needs to stop sensationalizing these acts.
Only two of those were a stranger walking in to a building and shooting indiscriminately--the Monash University killing and the Sydney Hostage Crisis. The rest were familicides or feuds with specific people that turned violent. There is a qualitative difference between those kinds of shootings and the kind the US is experiencing.
I personally feel it is going to require more than just a "black and white" fix. Approaching it from just a gun control angle isn't going to be effective, nor will approaching it from just a mental health angle or just a security angle. Its going to take a very unique mixture of the three (plus other factors) to effectively eliminate the occurrences of mass shootings. And in my opinion, I don't think complete elimination is a reality.
I do think guns need to be more regulated and that the process of obtaining one needs to be stricter. I also feel that you should have to pass an exam to show you're competent enough to handle the responsibility of the gun. You need to know the laws regarding them. It's required to obtain a driver's license, it should be required to obtain a gun.
I also feel more security needed at schools. Whether it be in the form of metal detectors, school uniforms, and clear/mesh backpacks. I remember when Columbine occurred, trench coats were pretty much banned from all schools for a time period. Why are they allowed now? Many schools have multiple buildings where you have to go outside to get to them. Place more metal detectors there so that each building has been screened before someone enters. Make classrooms physically safer. Thicker doors. Locks aren't on the door handles. Desks/tables that can be turned over to provide a protective barrier should the others fail.
Many say its NOT a mental health issue, but in reality, I personally feel that it is a big piece of it. As a whole, the general public does not sit back and plan on killing mass amounts of people. Your typical, mentally healthy person does not go into ANY place, be it a school, or a concert venue etc. etc. and decide to start shooting and killing people with guns that they bought, whether they were purchased legally or not. There is absolutely a disconnect there that we as a society are failing to recognize. Many articles say "no one saw any signs that the person was capable of this" and I have a hard time believing that. Most of your school shooters are those that are usually considered outsiders. Loaners who keep to themselves or who don't fit the mold of "typical kid". I feel that if schools were able to appropriately identify these kids, more help and resources could be made available. But then that opens up a whole other debate on whether or not schools can suggest such a thing. Too much focus is put on making sure we don't offend anyone that stating to a parent "we think your child needs to have some interventions due to their antisocial tendencies" is just a lawsuit waiting to happen. Which then leads to another issue which is the parents who just don't care. So many kids are left to their own devices while at home because their parents just don't care. What does that do to their psyche? There is sooooo much more to this epidemic than just gun control, mental health, or lack of security.
I think each school shooting case needs to be compared to each other. Take the shooters from Columbine, Newtown, Santa Fe, all of them, and compare them to each other and see what similarities stick out. What things do they all have in common? Were their motives the same? Were their social statuses (I'm not talking money here) the same? What was their home life like? What was found in their homes after the shootings? What was their behavior history? That information then needs to be taken and compiled and a general profile needs to be created. Kids who match this general profile then need to become a focus of the schools. Lets get them involved in activities they like. Lets make sure they're being heard and listened to. Lets find the ones they feel are Lets make sure they're valued for the good that they do. Lets make sure they're included and have a steady set of friends. Lets give them a job or an identity that isn't the "weird kid" or "the kid no one talks to" or the "guy who smells weird".
All of these things make up someone's mental health status. If the something isn't fulfilled, it can cause problems in other areas of their life. Mental health is more than just your stereotypical diagnoses like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Adults need to feel wanted, appreciated, and valued and kids/teenagers are no different.
This is just my humble opinion on things. I too hope to see a change for the benefit of my kids but also for the benefit of those who might fit the profile of someone who might be at risk for causing a tragedy.
I've never thought comparing our country to others was particularly useful. Like someone else said, it's like comparing apples and oranges. Our culture and social norms are very different from other nations. That's not necessarily good or bad; it just is, and we have to work with what we have, not what Australia has or what Europe has.
Yes, our culture may be a bit different from Australia (but not apples and oranges, by any means), but that doesn't mean we can't look at their INTERVENTIONS and ADAPT them for our own setting.
This tragic and heart wrenching issue is fresh and burns the heart of us all.
We must first agree on some core principles if we are going to move forward in a productive manner.
1. No one, in this forum or any other rational discussion, thinks this was a good thing. NOT ONE PERSON. We all need to stop point the finger and demonizing one another when NO ONE wanted this to happen.
2. We all can recognize that we have an illegal gun issue. Seized, borrowed, stolen, etc. wrongfully obtained weapons are being bought and sold with little to no discrepancy as to the owner or purpose.
3. We need a root cause analysis for EACH occurrence. What are the motives, means, failing throughout the system that facilitated, or hindered, the outcome.
The following are my own personal thoughts on the matter.
4. What are we doing for/to the parents? WHAT WERE THEY DOING? How much involvement in their little murders affairs did they place themselves? "You can blame the parents!" Some may say. BS. Says I. It's the parents sole duty to bring up children to be DECENT HUMAN BEINGS. "But, we had no idea he was this way!" BS "We tried the best we knew how." BS "He was such a good boy." BS If there wasn't signs that something was off, then I'll eat my Litmann.
5. We need to promote self defense and constructive courses in schools. The idea of Zero Tolerance for bullying in schools is great. The application leaves a lot to be desired. Most often, its both the bully and the bullied who are punished when the bullied has finally had enough. If we were instead to allow boys to settle disputes in a manner, a la ThunderDome, We might see a general lessening of the wish to bully another student. Fantastical true, but the premise is sound. If you offer no recourse for the one who feels they are wronged, then resentment builds. This resentment can, and has, come out in the violence available to a child who feels it's not worth it anymore.
6. We need to stop letting children win everything. "Here we go," some may say "Another hard nosed, don't give the kids a metal supporter." Yes, you are correct. We not teaching our children to face loss and rejection with their heads held high anymore. Some have already made the mention of the, World owe me for breathing, mentality. This I think is not far from the truth. When we fail to allow the child to learn rejection and frustration of loss at a young age, then they have no coping mechanisms later in life. Even as far as the girl who shunned them is now the prime target for retribution in the murderers eyes.
I feel, as you may have gleaned, that the problem is not going to be solved on a macro scale. We need to combat this on the micro scale. If we all take responsibility to raise our kids/grandkids to be the decent human beings that we all want to be in the world.
You are likely totally right when you say that no one here wants this type of thing to happen. but how do you KNOW that? It just strikes me the wrong way when people say they KNOW this or that with a billion % accuracy. They just KNOW.
The Columbine parents KNEW their kids. The parents and family of other mass killers in schools KNEW their kids. Well, they thought they did.
There is a lot that we THINK we KNOW but likely don't. Just a side point. Not the main issue, just think about it the next time you KNOW this or that with such certainty.
I agree with some other poster that the "glamorizing" of these shootings add to the issue. These shooters become famous. Nicholas Cruz who shot the school up in Florida was in the news for getting HUNDREDS of letters while in jail after killing all those people. They said girls were sending him suggestive material and pictures, sending him gifts....Why would you put that information in the news??? The kid in Texas apparently had been bullied, been turned down by a girl etc. He sees this other kid getting notoriety and attention from what he did, I am not saying that's the cause but it doesn't help. The media needs to stop sensationalizing these acts.
That often happens. Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, Richard Ramirez, likely just about every well-publicized mass rapist/killer/cannibal gets fan mail and marriage proposals. Some probably even get married in prison. If they last long enough, maybe they even get conjugal visits.
Too bad the media are generally NOT the resulting targets of their reporting.
RE: bullying
I think a bully should be spanked, good and hard, the old-fashioned way for bullying. Then he should be reasoned with, shown a better way, role play being the victim of bullying a few hundred times. Maybe he'll get it. His family or whoever he lives with should be inspected and probed for the underlying causes of his meanness. Then they should be treated, too. All should be kept under surveillance for a long, long time. Decades. Certainly for the rest of the bully's time in school.
Here is a novel idea that will take some additional research that we currently don't have. This is a bit of a long-winded explanation, but bear with me.
Is it possible that today's children are different from yesterday's? I don't mean in family values or culture or upbringing, but BIOLOGICALLY different.
Despite multiple reports on autoimmune diseases frequencies, long-term longitudinal follow-ups are scarce. Incidences and prevalences have increased significantly over the last 30 years. Rheumatic, endocrinological and gastrointestinal autoimmune diseases in Israel, Netherlands, USA and Sweden increased the most. These observations point to a stronger influence of environmental factors as opposed to genetic factors on autoimmune disease development.
Aaron Lerner, Patricia Jeremias, and Torsten Matthias, "The World Incidence and Prevalence of Autoimmune Diseases is Increasing." International Journal of Celiac Disease, vol. 3, no. 4 (2015): 151-155. doi: 10.12691/ijcd-3-4-8.
Anecdote: My oldest son is now 20. When he was in 2nd grade, his teacher with 40 year experience said, "When I first started teaching, I could easily handle a class of 40. Now, I'm struggling with 20. The kids are different now. I'm convinced it's our environment."
Where are our studies on autoimmune diseases and the environmental factors that may have a role in it. Our food is genetically modified, our air is filled with waves that we can't see and know NOTHING about the effects on our bodies, our waterways are contaminated, and we sit in traffic inhaling fumes. Why are our girls and boys hitting puberty earlier and earlier? Why do we have a growing incidence of autoimmune diseases in the developed world?
Do we really think that none of this has affected the growing bodies and brains of our children?
We need to found out what type of damage our technological advances can cause. We simply don't know, but we are seeing the effects of without cause.
I think several different things should happen, first, only one unlocked entrance into the school with metal detector and security officer. I also believe teachers or principal should be armed, but on a volunteer basis, and they must have yearly training with that gun. Also a way to barricade the classroom door from the inside. Drills in school with the children on what to do in event that gunman enters their school. And above all, teachers and staff on constant watch for bullying. Parents brought in if child caught bullying the first time. If they don't stop it, that bully can no longer go to that school. It might not stop it all but it would slow it down.
GUN FREE ZONES ARE TODAY'S KILLING FIELDS, GUN CONTROL WILL ONLY EXPAND THEM. THERE ARE TOO MANY FIREARMS IN CIRCULATION FOR THERE TO EVER BE AN EFFECTIVE BAN (it is reported that the numbers are north of 600 million)
Benjamin Franklin said it best,
"Those who would trade freedom for security deserve neither."
I'm a gun owner with a CCW and a supporter of the second amendment, and like the majority of gun owners I support the currently proposed measures which consist of making a reasonable effort to keep guns out of the hands of violent criminals and to make it harder for criminals to defeat a 'good guy with a gun' through easy access to large capacity semi-auto firearms. As a gun owner and carrier, I'd much rather face a criminal who couldn't get a gun, or a mass shooter who had a hard time getting a firearm specifically suited to that purpose.
You're sort of on track with Franklin's reference to choosing security over freedom, but I don't think you've applied it correctly. What Franklin was referring to was the Penn families desire to pay lawmakers what was essentially a bribe in order to ensure that the law protected their idealism at the expense of the freedom of the general population. Freedom and Liberty include the right of the general public to exist in a society where we've at least taken basic steps to prevent violent criminals from having guns and to limit the availability of firearms that are primarily suited to illegal acts. There is a small group of gun owners that would trade their perceived security (really just the security of their political stance) for the safety of society as a whole, and according to Franklin, they deserve neither.
To be quite honest, and I mean this in the most non prejudice way. I believe that many of these young people have a warped sense of entitlement. They feel entitled to be accepted, to feel how they want to feel, to think how they want to think, without being rejected. Kids have been bullied forever. African kids are bullied ALL the time!!! I went to school (in the early 2000s) in a very rough neighborhood, with Blacks and Latinos. I personally knew people who brought weapons to school or hid their weapons outside the school on a daily basis. I've seen kids get jumped and bullied. I've seen kids get jumped and urinate on themselves with the whole crowd laughing at them, and still came to school the next day. This was a reality for many of my friends in similar communities. No matter how many times we (referring to people at my school) were bullied, rejected, or outcasted, no one EVER said they wanted to bring a weapon to school to hurt anyone. Maybe we need to start examining what's going on within this specific demographic - young white males - and why they hold this attitude of: if I am sad, depressed, rejected, or bullied, I am ENTITLED to kill others, in order for them to feel my pain.
IDEA: Implementing metal detectors would be a great start...just my opinion, in addition to violence prevention strategies, like they do in inner city schools.
Nurse2b_Cook
6 Posts
GUN FREE ZONES ARE TODAY'S KILLING FIELDS, GUN CONTROL WILL ONLY EXPAND THEM. THERE ARE TOO MANY FIREARMS IN CIRCULATION FOR THERE TO EVER BE AN EFFECTIVE BAN (it is reported that the numbers are north of 600 million)
Benjamin Franklin said it best,
"Those who would trade freedom for security deserve neither."