Contact: Fred Bemak, (614) 688-8652
Written by Jeff Grabmeier, (614) 292-8457; [email protected]
CHANGES TO PREVENT SCHOOL VIOLENCE OFTEN RESISTED, AUTHOR SAYS
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A truly effective program to deal with school violence usually requires a change in a school's culture -- a change that is often resisted, according to the author of a new book on dealing with violent youth.
"Not all schools are open to change and responsive to recommendations, even if they are completely reasonable," said Fred Bemak, co-author of the new book Violent and Aggressive Youth: Intervention and Prevention Strategies for Changing Times (Corwin Press, 1999).
"Resistance to change occurs frequently and should be expected."
Bemak, who has done extensive consulting work in schools across the country on developing and implementing aggression- and violence-prevention programs, is associate professor and section head of counselor education at Ohio State University. He wrote the book with Susan Keys, assistant professor and department chair of counseling and human services at Johns Hopkins University.
Bemak said the problem of school violence today requires a new comprehensive strategy -- one that teams school counselors, teachers and administrators with family members, police, outside agencies and government officials. Such a team can help identify aggressive youth and get them help before they turn violent. But sometimes administrators balk at the internal school changes that are necessary to make these teams work.
"There's often a tendency in schools, as in the rest of society, to maintain the status quo," Bemak said. "Sometimes it takes an act of violence or threat of violence to motivate schools to change."
The school shooting in Littleton, Colo. on April 20 that left 15 people dead may be an incident that motivates change in some schools across the country, Bemak said.
A new approach to school violence is needed, in part, because the problems of violent and aggressive youth go beyond the traditional reach of the school. Bemak suggests that school counselors can modify their roles to become team leaders in helping manage aggressive youth. They can help organize the efforts of social workers, mental health professionals, parents and others who all have a role in helping troubled youth.
"Many of the at-risk youth are already being helped by a variety of professionals," Bemak said. "On any one day, several different professionals may enter the school or work with family members in the community or in their homes. These professionals provide services for a short time, and then leave. In many cases there is no integration of these service providers into the larger school structure."
Bemak said school counselors, given their training and skills in human relations, may be the best people to take the role of team leaders who help organize the various professionals working with children. "This could mean that the school counselor spends less time working directly with aggressive students in a counseling capacity, and more time consulting with family members, teachers, administrators, and school- and community-based service providers," he said.
This also means some school counselors may need to shift their workday in order to meet with the schedules of other team and family members. For example, Bemak said one school counselor he knows shifted her workday so that she works 1 to 8 p.m. three days a week so she can meet with family members of troubled students.
The team concept to dealing with youth violence can be instituted in a variety of ways, according to Bemak. One elementary school that Bemak and Keys consulted with developed what the school called the CONNECT Team. The CONNECT Team included representatives from the school, parents, a grandparent and a Head Start teacher, and representatives from various community agencies, including the police and the parks and recreation department.
One of the important projects the team started was a family resource center, which focused on preventing aggression in the school by identifying families in crisis. The resource center helped families in crisis get the mental health or other services they needed in order to stop violence before it started.
"A program such as CONNECT is usually not seen as part of a school's duty in the community," Bemak said. "But there is no easy solution to the complex problems of violence and aggression, and collaboration is going to be a key.
"Collaboration, however, takes time and requires significant changes in how schools organize and deliver services. Sometimes that change is not easy to bring about," he said.
Bemak said he realizes that developing this team concept is difficult and time-consuming -- but it is necessary. "There are no shortcuts to preventing violence," he said.
"However, school counselors or others who want to create a team need to recognize that it is OK to start small. Rather than trying to develop a full-fledged team, a counselor might begin by finding one or two partners who share a commitment to reducing violence. Taking small steps may lead to a true solution."
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