Parents whose children died in the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook are pushing for one route through the political inertia in Washington which could help make every school in America safer.
In the five years after 20 children were murdered in the Connecticut elementary school, Mark Barden, whose seven-year-old son Daniel was killed, has worked with a small group of other Sandy Hook families to try to change America’s reaction to the ‘red flags’ that indicate a student might be a risk.
Sandy Hook Promise has shared its “Know the Signs” training programs with 2.5 million students and adults so far, working across the country, one school district at a time, offering the training free of cost to school to educate kids and teachers about what to look for and what to do.
Legislation brought forward by Republicans and Democrats would authorise federal funds to expand the programme.
Sandy Hook Promise has already been working with some schools in Florida, where this week’s shooting left 17 people dead.
“We know, all too well, that this is preventable, that there were warning signs, plenty of warning signs, that were missed,” said Barden.
“There is no litany of expletive-laden rage that could adequately express the sorrow and frustration and anger and despair and defeat that I feel.”
Barden said it was chilling to see how closely the account of the Parkland shooting mirrored the public service videos Sandy Hook Promise has made, to try to explain to the public how the signs of an at-risk student can go unnoticed.
“It just kind of shows you that this can be predictable,” he said. “This can be preventable, if we know what we’re looking for, and can take those next steps.”
For schools, the Sandy Hook Promise training programs focus on a “threat assessment model,” which keeps at-risk students in-school, rather than expelling them, and puts them in touch with a team of teachers, administrations, school resource officers and counselors who can all work collaboratively to address the students’ needs.
Supporting programs for at-risk students is just one part of what needs to be done, Barden said. Both families and law enforcement officials also need more effective tools to use when working with high-risk teenagers and adults who own guns, like federal or state laws to create extreme risk protection orders, which would allow police or family members to petition a judge to temporarily bar a potentially dangerous person from owning or buying guns.
The Sandy Hook shooter was a troubled, isolated 20-year-old who was obsessed with mass murder, especially the Columbine school shooting. He had easy access to guns, including an AR-15 style rifle legally purchased by his mother.
The Parkland shooter was a troubled, isolated 19-year-old who legally purchased an AR-15 rifle last year. Many questions remain about the shooting, including why the FBI did not follow up more after receiving a tip last year that a YouTube commenter named Nikolas Cruz had expressed a desire to become a “professional school shooter”.
“If we want to take this seriously – and, we, by God, better take this seriously,” Barden said, America needs a “comprehensive, holistic approach.”
“That includes policy, it includes changing our laws, it includes enforcing our existing laws, it includes funding for programs, funding for mental health. We have to do all of that. This is not just going to be, ‘I checked the box, and we’re done.’”
“It’s the warning signs that were missed, it’s the access to military weapons, it’s the lack of action from our elected officials. It’s the whole thing. It’s not just mental health, it’s not just interventions, it’s everything.”
The Stop School Violence Act of 2018, which authorizes funding for evidence-based school violence prevention programs, was introduced in January. Its sponsors include Florida congressmen John Rutherford, a Republican, and Ted Deutch, a Democrat.
The legislation “gives students, faculty, and local law enforcement the training and resources that they need to identify signs of violence and intervene early,” Rutherford said in a statement after the Parkland shooting. “We must make sure that we know how and when to act when we see signs of violence, and that law enforcement has the resources they need to effectively follow up on these leads.”
