An ethical and legal perspective on the role of school counselors in preventing violence in schools - Special issue: legal and ethical issues in school counseling

Professional School Counseling, Oct, 2002 by Mary A. Hermann, Abbe Finn

Bailey (2001) noted the difference in using profiles to assign students to alternative educational programs and using profiles to direct students to violence prevention or mental health services. He explained that the latter could have constitutional implications, but courts would likely see the allocation of mental health services to students potentially in need of these services as an additional opportunity for students as opposed to a deprivation of rights. However, school counselors can avoid the possibility of litigation related to the use of student profiles by presenting all students with the opportunity for violence prevention activities and using means other than profiles to assess whether students are potentially violent.

Characteristics of Students Who May Be in Need of Violence Prevention Intervention

Though interventions based on the use of a mythical violent student profile could be violative of students' constitutional rights, school counselors still have a legal and ethical duty to act reasonably to prevent school violence. Assessing a student's potential risk of violence is implicit in this duty. Consideration of certain risk factors related to violent behavior can help school counselors make this assessment. In Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2001), a risk factor was described as any factor that increases the likelihood that a person will suffer harm. Risk factors differ from violent student profiles because they encompass a broad range of indicators as opposed to one rigid, stereotypical profile. Though no risk factor or set of risk factors can accurately predict that a student will become violent, a risk factor increases the possibility that a student will become violent. The presence of multiple risk factors further increases the possibility that a student may become violent.

The research on risk factors and the prediction of violence has relied upon retrospective studies of students who have already become violent. This was accomplished by conducting psychological postmortems after violent incidents to discover common characteristics related to behavior, development, and psychosocial history (Borduin & Schaeffer, 1998; Dwyer et al., 1998; Hamburg, 1998; Hardwick & Rowton-Lee, 1996; Kashani, Jones, Bumby, & Thomas, 1999; Poland & McCormick, 1999; Vossekuil et al., 2000). For example, Vossekuil et al. studied 37 school shootings and found that most students do not impulsively go on shooting rampages. Over three fourths of the school shootings studied were planned and more than one half of the shootings were planned at least two days prior to the shooting. Furthermore, over one half of the attackers developed the idea to harm others at least 2 weeks prior to the event.

Vossekuil et al. (2000) found that in almost every case, the perpetrator engaged in behavior that caused others to express concern about the student. In over three fourths of the cases, an adult expressed concern because the student was engaging in behaviors such as attempting to gain access to weapons and writing suicidal or homicidal thoughts in school work. Vossekuil et al. reported that in over 75% of the incidents, perpetrators told at least one person what they were planning to do before carrying out the plan. Stevens, Lynm, and Glass (2001) also found that in over half of the violent school attacks, students wrote a note, made a journal entry, or advertised their plan in some other manner.