EYE ON EDUCATION More Threats, More Security After Texas Incident
In the week following the Uvalde shooting on May 24, stories of additional violent threats in schools quickly surfaced, reports the K-12 Dive e-newsletter. Those accused of threatening school shootings ranged from men to teenagers and young boys. In Cape Coral, Florida, a 10-year-old student in 5th grade was charged with making a written threat to conduct a mass shooting. According to the report, “The School Shooter: A Threat Assessment Perspective,” copycat behavior is common. “School shootings and other violent incidents that receive intense media attention can generate threats or copycat violence elsewhere,” it says. While many schools take additional security measures after a shooting, studies show that some of the measures make students feel unsafe. “There is research to support that the presence of police, school resource officers, metal detectors, random locker checks, and clear backpacks are directly linked to the psychological trauma response,” Addison Duane, Ph.D. told K-12 Dive. Holding additional active-shooter drills at schools after a shooting has been criticized for causing student trauma. In some cases, starter pistols are fired in school hallways to mimic
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the sound of gunfire, reports Gerard Lawson in the K-12 Dive article. The licensed professional counselor, who helped coordinate the response to the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007, feels that there are more humane ways to conduct drills, and “there should be a grace period for kids to be able to decompress from a shooting situation.”
Book Advises Students to Advocate for Phys Ed
“In her delightful new book, You Are Your Own Best Teacher!: Sparking the Curiosity, Imagination, and Intellect of Tweens, social scientist Claire Nader offers startling statistics,” writes Jay Mathews, education columnist for The Washington Post. “Decades ago, daily P.E. was the norm. These days, she said, only 4 percent of elementary schools, 7 percent of middle schools and 2 percent of high schools have daily P.E. the entire school year. Twenty-two percent of schools have no P.E. at all.” The decrease is due, in part, to the fact that Americans “have never been that keen on exercise,” he says. Sharing the blame is the push to raise academic achievement, which allowed school districts to reduce or eliminate gym classes and save money by hiring fewer phys ed teachers. Nader’s book offers suggestions to kids ages 9 to 12 on what they can do to improve their own education, Mathews reports. On the P.E. issue, for instance, Nader urges them to gather their friends and lobby teachers and principals. Letters to school officials and the media can also work. Suggestions from other sources, like Powering the Future of Physical Education (plt4m.com) are aimed directly at schools to make simple but impactful changes. They include requiring P.E. every year and every semester, coordinating the approach to P.E. across junior and senior high schools “so it’s a continued experience of quality physical education,” removing the ability to opt out, increasing the budget for physical education, and investing in fitness facilities.
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In June, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona laid out his vision for how the nation can elevate the teaching profession and support teachers across the country. He also released a fact sheet on how American Rescue Plan (ARP) fund investments in our nation’s educators can be sustained for the
26 June 2022 — EducationalDealerMagazine.com
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