Another round of gun violence that occurred recently in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, has Americans questioning the nature of these tragedies and what can be done to prevent them.
On May 14, an 18-year-old man walked into a Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, New York, and opened fire among the Black customers in the store. This racially motivated onslaught ended with the deaths of 10 African Americans, and three injured.
Ten days later, another 18-year-old man entered the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and fatally shot 19 children, two teachers, and left 17 others wounded. This marked the 27th school shooting incident in 2022 alone.
For years, Harvard has had to consider and respond to the possibility of a tragedy such as these occurring within its community. School Superintendent Linda Dwight sent letters to parents and guardians of students after both these events and spoke to the Press about the issue at hand.
On May 17, in a letter addressing the Buffalo shooting, Dwight wrote of the need to create a culture that confronts racism and aggression within the school district, and educates all on the harm of silence.
“Each district has to write a district improvement plan,” said Dwight. “And one of the things we’ve been working on as a district is how to create a culture that is anti-racist.”
Dwight believes the creation of an anti-
racist culture across the district begins in dialogue between teachers and students. “We’ve got to make sure that our teachers that are leaders are helping students process these events that happen,” noted Dwight. “We wanted to call it out to parents that we were going to be addressing it in the classes as appropriate for the age of the students.”
However, the conversation about these events doesn’t end at school, claimed Dwight.
“And then also give the parents resources, how to talk about those events with their students. So we’re not only looking to help teachers, but we’re also looking to help parents,” she said. “[To] have these difficult conversations with their children so that we can help impact world change in our small corner.”
Arming teachers: ‘A ludicrous suggestion’
After any mass shooting incident in the United States, talk of firearm and gun control swamps conversations and media alike across the nation. Especially after school shooting incidents, the topic of armed teachers on school grounds begins to resurface. Dwight’s personal opinion on the matter is a vehement rejection of the idea.
“My personal opinion, absolutely not,” Dwight stated. “I think it’s a ludicrous suggestion, [and] that’s not why educators have ever gone into education.”
Dwight, however, favors more attention to students’ mental well-being.
“I think most educators are for legislation that supports students’ mental health, because it’s evident that people using guns in a murderous way are suffering themselves from mental health issues that are probably not properly taken care of,” noted Dwight.
The link between mental illness and firearm violence is the subject of ongoing research suggesting that access to firearms, addiction, and other factors may be more predictive of violence than a diagnosis of mental illness. However, most experts agree that depression and suicidal thinking among youth is increasing amid a shortage of mental health care professionals and can contribute to destructive behavior.
To combat the feelings of alienation and exclusion that students may experience in school, the Harvard school district has increased the number of counselors in school from four to six and introduced a therapy dog at Bromfield in 2018.
“We always want the community to know that we’ve got counselors who help students with anxiety, and certainly, school shootings are anxiety-producing for students,” Dwight said.
Students offer insight
Michelle Buni, a freshman at the Bromfield School, thinks that Harvard public schools may be more concerned about their image, rather than the students.
“I think that Bromfield is attempting to quash parental fears and concerns by sending out [these letters],” said Buni in an email response to the Press. “Bromfield has had a therapy dog for quite a while, and while it is one way to help, I don’t think it is very important or effective in the prevention of school shootings.”
Bhodi Chadran, a recent Bromfield graduate and former co-editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper, echoed Buni’s opinion and called out the oddities in the letters sent out to parents and guardians.
“It seemed to me like they were taking random aspects of the school. For example, the therapy dog is a great thing to have in a school, but I don’t think it has much to do with mass shootings and safety for mass shootings,” said Chadran in an interview with the Press.
However, Chadran also commended the time Bromfield takes to check in with students with their trusted adult forms. These forms ask students to evaluate themselves emotionally and address any risk factors that may be going on in their lives. Though he would like to see them used more frequently, Chadran believes these forms could prove to be an outlet for students in need.
Having more counselors at schools may help with some of the alienation that Chadran has noticed in school. Though he hesitated to call it bullying, Chadran pointed out that the tightknit community of Harvard can sometimes breed cliques within schools.
“It’s not the stereotypical kind of bullying that you’ll see in a movie or TV show where everyone is ganging up on one kid and stuffing them into a locker. But it is a very small school and a tightknit community. There tend to be a lot of cliques that form and with that comes a lot of exclusion,” said Chadran. “It’s very easy to feel isolated and excluded in a community like Bromfield.”
Similarly, Buni agrees that having more counselors at schools, and having students’ emotional well-being as a larger focal point, can prove beneficial.
“I do think that having more counselors in the building can definitely help students to alleviate or process fears/concerns. More counselors means more focus on each student’s needs,” wrote Buni.
Dwight mirrors this sentiment, recognizing that neglect of a student’s mental health may sometimes end up in a violent and extreme retaliation from students.
“The other thing is that a number of shootings have been perpetrated by people—young people—who had some connection to the district.”
Dwight suggests an angle that acknowledges the fact that, in many cases, the gunmen behind these tragedies are themselves former students of the school. Providing assistance and support to students who may be in need of it could allow schools to stop these catastrophes at the source.
“We’re very committed to helping young people as they experience difficulties in school or outside of school, and what we do, we do to support anyone struggling with mental health issues.”
