The United States is a nation that has been facing a crisis of violence within its school system for decades. This disruptive and traumatic phenomenon has had lasting impacts on the systems in which educations must exist, but the ripple effects of this require an extensive analysis. To advance society, quality education is necessary, and ensuring that quality demands that experts take a step back and look at the bigger picture. In the wake of rising concerns over safety in educational environments, Impact of Gun Violence in School Systems delves into the urgent issue of gun violence within the United States' school systems. As educators, administrators, counselors, social workers, and policy makers grapple with the complex challenges presented by violence, this book serves as a comprehensive guide to understanding the multifaceted dimensions of the issue. Examining topics such as gun violence, mental health, school suspension, student success, bullying, violence reduction programs, alternative schools, inner-city youth programs, and zero-tolerance policies, the manuscript synthesizes current research, real-world examples, and innovative solutions. Impact of Gun Violence in School Systems not only sheds light on the root causes of violence within educational settings but also provides actionable insights and recommendations, making it an indispensable resource for those committed to creating safer and more conducive learning environments for our youth.

Different areas of inquiry have addressed the tragedy of school shootings and their deeply disruptive impacts upon school culture, classrooms, and student learning in this contemporary moment. Therefore, it is important to bring together interdisciplinary research on the long-term impacts of these events on students, teachers, and communities. In an age where arming classroom teachers is a serious policy initiative, there is a question of how a culture of fear manifests itself in those involved in school systems. There is a need to study these effects and implications in a time where violence and school shootings appear to have become more common than ever before. Hence, there is a need for diverse perspectives in this area of complex and urgent inquiry. Impact of School Shootings on Classroom Culture, Curriculum, and Learning explores the manifestations of the threat of school shootings and the aftermath of such tragic events through an interdisciplinary approach including but not limited to inquiries from educational psychology, sociology, educational philosophy, school leadership, and school culture with a view towards understanding the enduring and obscured effects of school shootings beyond the prevailing emphasis on facility safety and security. While chapters highlight topics such as resilience and recovery, school culture, sociology of schools, leadership and school regulation, and many more areas of interest, this book is ideal for educational leaders and administrators, classroom teachers, counselors, therapists, psychologists, school division trustees, law enforcement, policymakers, researchers, academicians, and students looking for the impacts and aftermath of school shootings on all aspects of education.

Tackling the difficult and charged topic of weaponized school violence, A Relentless Threat: Scholars Respond to Teens on Weaponized School Violence examines some of the root causes that lead teen shooters to make the decision to kill their teachers and peers. This research and commentary on gun violence in U.S. schools positions the reader to understand its historical and political context and to reflect on its social and emotional causes. The book explores potential solutions to this uniquely American phenomenon through a variety of scholarly lenses. With a focus on research and pragmatic solutions, these academics respond directly to individual teen voices in an effort to recognize those stakeholders most often dismissed. This book includes discussion on U.S. firearms policy, ostracism, bullying, social media, capitalizing on shooter events, and programs in schools to prevent violence. A Relentless Threat: Scholars Respond to Teens on Weaponized School Violence establishes the groundwork for the second book by the editors (Dress Rehearsals for Gun Violence: Confronting Trauma and Anxiety in America’s Schools) by examining how we got to this point and what actions may be taken to stop future rampage shootings in schools.

This book examines the gun-related policy responses to three school shooting incidents in the United States. Gun violence prevention activists and others involved in policy making were interviewed for the book, and news media articles and policy documents were critically assessed. As a result, interpretations of the Second Amendment are shown to affect the acceptability of certain gun restrictions. News media content and policy documents, coupled with the thoughts of activists, also give an indication of why certain policy measures passed and others failed at the time of each of the case studies. This book should be of interest to social policy, politics, criminology and sociology students and academics, as well as those with a general interest in the topic.

Perhaps never before has an objective, evidence-based review of the intersection between gun violence and mental illness been more sorely needed or more timely. Gun Violence and Mental Illness, written by a multidisciplinary roster of authors who are leaders in the fields of mental health, public health, and public policy, is a practical guide to the issues surrounding the relation between firearms deaths and mental illness. Tragic mass shootings that capture headlines reinforce the mistaken beliefs that people with mental illness are violent and responsible for much of the gun violence in the United States. This misconception stigmatizes individuals with mental illness and distracts us from the awareness that approximately 65% of all firearm deaths each year are suicides. This book is an apolitical exploration of the misperceptions and realities that attend gun violence and mental illness. The authors frame both pressing social issues as public health problems subject to a variety of interventions on individual and collective levels, including utilization of a novel perspective: evidence-based interventions focusing on assessments and indicators of dangerousness, with or without indications of mental illness. Reader-friendly, well-structured, and accessible to professional and lay audiences, the book: * Reviews the epidemiology of gun violence and its relationship to mental illness, exploring what we know about those who perpetrate mass shootings and school shootings. * Examines the current legal provisions for prohibiting access to firearms for those with mental illness and whether these provisions and new mandated reporting interventions are effective or whether they reinforce negative stereotypes associated with mental illness. * Discusses the issues raised in accessing mental health treatment in regard to diminished treatment resources, barriers to access, and involuntary commitment.* Explores novel interventions for addressing these issues from a multilevel and multidisciplinary public health perspective that does not stigmatize people with mental illness. This includes reviews of suicide risk assessment; increasing treatment engagement; legal, social, and psychiatric means of restricting access to firearms when people are in crisis; and, when appropriate, restoration of firearm rights. Mental health clinicians and trainees will especially appreciate the risk assessment strategies presented here, and mental health, public health, and public policy researchers will find Gun Violence and Mental Illness a thoughtful and thought-provoking volume that eschews sensationalism and embraces serious scholarship.

From voices in the field, Dress Rehearsals for Gun Violence: Confronting Trauma and Anxiety in America’s Schools considers how damaging fear and anxiety are for those who are in our schools every day in the United States and living with both the ever present threat of a school shooting and the continuous preparations for one. This book examines those impacted directly including not just students and teachers, but preservice teachers considering teaching as a profession, college professors, support staff, and librarians. This follow up book to A Relentless Threat: Scholars Respond to Teens on Weaponized School Violence, goes in depth into the human cost of violence by exploring the fear of potential violence in our schools and what may be done to lessen that trauma and anxiety. This book includes discussion on the very real impact of false alarms, the trauma and anxiety experienced by teachers, the risks and benefits of armed shooter training, the unique challenges of non-classroom spaces, using young adult literature as a tool for processing emotions with students, and the importance of teaching critical reading skills for evaluating how school shootings are portrayed in the media.