Counselor Education Program:
Training compassionate, trauma
informed counselors
Lessons from Columbine to
Sandy Hook: What School
Counselors Need to Know
NJSCA – April 8, 2016
Kean University
Active Shooter
• A person who makes a threat is rarely the same as the person who poses a threat.
• Successful threat management of a person of concern involves long-term caretaking and coordinationbetween law enforcement, mental health care, and social services.
• Exclusionary interventions (e.g., expulsion, termination) do not necessarily mean the end of threat-management efforts.
Active Shooter
• Many display observable preattack behaviors, which, if recognized, can lead to disruption of planned attack.
• Pathway to targeted violence typically involves an unresolved real or perceived grievance and violent resolution ideation that moves from thought to research, planning, and preparation.
• Thorough threat assessment needs a holistic review of an individual with historical, clinical, and contextual factors.
Active Shooter
• 43% of the time the crime is over before police arrive. In 57% of the shootings, an officer arrives while the shooting is still underway.
• The shooter often stops as soon as he hears or sees law enforcement, sometimes turning his anger or aggression on law enforcement.
• Patrol officers most likely respond alone or with a partner. When responding alone, 75% had to take action.
Active Shooter
(
fbi.gov/active shooter)• Incidents often occur in small/ medium-sized communities where police departments are limited by budget constraints and small workforces.
• The average active-shooter incident lasts 12 minutes. 37% last less than 5 minutes.
• Overwhelmingly, the offender is a single shooter (98 percent), primarily male (97%).
• In 40% of the instances, they kill themselves.
• 2% of shooters bring IEDs as an additional weapon.
• In 10% of the cases, the shooter stops and walks away.
After Mass Violence/Terrorism
• Emotional preparedness for overwhelming sensory impact, noise, neural images on survivors, families, and responders in the hot zone
• PFA and psychosocial support strategies in response to chaos and extreme psychological distress
• Strategies for chaos and crowd management
• Rumor control dealing with media/journalists at disaster scene and after-effects when media reports are wrong
Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting
• 82 Staff
• 489 students (k-4)
•
Survivors were
Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting
•
December 14, 2012
•
A lone gunman shot his way
into the school
•
The shooting lasted
approximately 5 minutes
•
20 first grade children and 6
educators were killed; all of
the children were 6 or 7
years old
•
The shooter’s mother was
From the Sandy Hook
• Not prepared or expected this type of event• Access roads were jammed
• Media were within close proximity to children & families
• Continual threats from “copycats”, those with mental health problems, and political motivations (“truth-ers”)
• Continual lockdowns
• Yale psychiatrists recommended school reopen within the month
• Comfort attempts turns in to retraumatiztion
• No trauma informed training for the intervention & recovery
Lessons from School Shootings
• Major change – immediate response instead of waiting
• Goal – disarm/disable perpetrator(s), not address wounded
• Regular first responder drills & hotwash
• Ability to lock doors from the inside (entry & classroom)
• Most shooters have left evidence of the trajectory (leakage)
•
Know EOP location and regular practice/review
•
Know ICS through training & practice
•
Decentralize management in buildings
•
Structure and climate of the building comes in to
play
•
Rural/suburban may be more vulnerable
•
Perpetrators overwhelmingly male
Ready Responder
Spontaneous
Uninvited
Volunteer
(SUV)
Credentials processed or recognized in online registry
Trained in disaster scenarios
Role assigned/waiting
Trained not to retraumatize
May be affected personally has unit help
Credentials not processed or recognized, time lost
Unfamiliar with DMH scenarios
Role may not be needed
Could retraumatize
Myths and Realities
•
Not all persons who are exposed to traumatic
events show shock or distress, or become
traumatized
•
The majority
will not
develop posttraumatic
stress disorder (PTSD) or severe mental
health problems.
•
The majority experience psychological
Range of Reactions
• Some individuals (thrivers) emerge from the event even stronger than before the event (Posttraumatic Growth). Resilience is the most common effect.
• The human response to disaster is phase specific and hazard
specific (human-caused).
• “Just because you have experienced a disaster does not mean
Resiliency
“Resilience can be thought of as the capacity to
prepare for, recover from and adapt in the face of
stress, adversity, trauma or tragedy.”
When you are resilient, you can not only bounce
back and recoup faster after a challenging
situation, but you can also neutralize or prevent
some of the ongoing wear and tear.
Special populations
• Survivor Witnesses (first graders)
• SHS staff (some were first responders) • SHS students
• SHS parents and siblings
• Emergency Responders (Police, Fire. EMS)
• Clergy
•Town Leaders and Municipal Center Employees
• Residents, coaches, medical providers,babysitters, funeral directors, and grave diggers
• Local reporters
• Staff and students at the other Newtown schools
Differences between DMH & MH
PFA
• Goal is no change
• Return to normal
• Self help/self-efficacy
• Brief
• Psychoeducation
• Neighbor helping neighbor
Psychotherapy
• Goal is to change
• New behaviors
• Need therapist
• Need change process
• Individual or group therapy
Responders’ Three Principles
•
Protect
from further
exposure and media
•
Direct
by being “patient,
responsive, sensitive”
Heroic
Honeymoon
Disillusionment
Reconstruction
Time
. . . . 1 to 3 days . . . . . . . . 1 to 3 years . . . .
Predisaster
Threat Warning
Impact
Inventory
(A New Beginning)
Trigger Events and Anniversary Reactions (Community Cohesion)
Phase I
Impact Phase 0 – 48 hrs
Phase II
Rescue Phase 0 -1 week
Phase III
Recovery Phase 1 – 4 weeks
Phase IV
Return To Life Phase 2 weeks – 2 years
Pre-Incident
Herman’s Triphasic Recovery Model
Safety and Stabilization
Remembrance and Mourning (story)
Tasks of Mourning
§
Accept the reality of the loss
§
Process the pain of grief
§
Adjust to a world without the deceased
- External adjustments- Internal adjustments - Spiritual adjustments
§
Find an enduring connection with the deceased in the
midst of embarking on a new life
(Worden, 2009)The Hot Zone: Sensory stimulation
overwhelming
• Noise decibels, alarms, sirens, screaming
• Chaos, confusion, running
• Emergency vehicles
• Physical carnage, bodies, injuries
• Terror
• Shock
Prepared?
•
America Prepared Campaign (2004) assessed the
20 largest school districts in their preparedness
for a terrorist attack
•
50% of the districts received a needs
improvement (NI) or Fail
•
the criteria were measured across three major
Emotional/Psychological Threats
• Press/Social Media/TV coverage
• Perpetrators’ whereabouts
• Personal threat • Terror
• Child victims
• Innocent/random victims • Feeling unsafe
• Human-caused: intentional, planned, deadly
Early Recovery
•
Ongoing emotional support
•
Coordinate DMH volunteers
•
Vigils, services,
•
Memorials, funerals
•
Victim support (VARDT, FBI)
•
Temporary/alternate work sites
Mid Recovery
• Anniversary-1 year
• Family liaison
• Media coverage/features • Social media
• Criminal litigation • Rehabilitation
CAUTION ON PROFILING
• There is no accurate or useful profile of
students who have engaged in targeted school violence.
• Incidents of targeted violence at school are
rarely sudden, impulsive acts.
• Prior to most incidents, other people knew
about the attacker’s idea and/or the plan to attack.
• Most attackers did not threaten their targets
Threat Assessment
•
A psychological assessment of a student gives
information that is static in time and reveals
information about only one aspect of the situation
– the student’s mindset. What we’ve learned from
the work of those in the student threat
assessment field is that good assessment entails
evaluating and monitoring the student’s whole life
circumstances, not just the student’s mindset
• Most attackers engaged in some behavior prior to the incident that caused others concern or indicated a need for help.
• Most attackers had difficulty coping with significant loss or personal failures. Moreover, many had considered or attempted suicide.
• Many attackers felt bullied, persecuted, or injured by others prior to the attack.
• Most attackers had access to and had used weapons prior to the attack.
• In many cases, other students were involved in some capacity.
