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Solace Found in Data on School Violence

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Social Welfare Professor Ron Avi Astor wrote an op-ed for CNN that shines light on comforting data on school violence. While the contagion of mass shootings dominates the narrative on the safety of school campuses, research led by Astor shows that, overall, efforts to lessen violence in schools are working. “Our country deserves to know that mass shootings are just one part of the school safety story,” Astor wrote. “On a day-to-day basis, when looking at violence that is not related to school shootings, our kids are safer.” An expert on school safety, Astor appeared in a Swedish National Radio documentary series on campus violence and spoke to WKRN-TV in Nashville about the risks of creating a prison atmosphere in an effort to secure schools. Astor said that students who feel surveilled or see safety officers, police dogs, even see-through backpacks may come to this conclusion: “You’re the target or you’re the potential perpetrator.” 

Read the CNN op-ed
Watch the WKRN video

 

Understanding the Epidemic of Mass Attacks

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The Washington Post called on social welfare professor Ron Avi Astor for perspective on the nation’s epidemic of mass attacks at campuses, workplaces and other public locations. In an article about a Secret Service report that characterized the motivations of attackers, Astor noted that suicidal ideation is a key factor. “A good number of them are suicidal, a good number of them are trying to create terror, and … some of them might want to be remembered when they’re gone,” he said. Another Post story about a rise in the presence of panic buttons, locks and police on school campuses said more than 331,000 children at more than 350 schools have experienced gun violence during school hours since 1999. “It’s decades of shootings that are horrific, and it’s not just in schools. It’s supermarkets and movie theaters, music events, and just the randomness,” Astor said. But he cautioned against the “prisonization” of schools, noting that increased security must be accompanied by mental health initiatives.

Read the article on mass attacks
Read the article on school safety

 

Astor on Gun Safety Education for Kids, Parents, Teachers

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Ron Avi Astor, professor of social welfare and expert on school violence, spoke to the Associated Press about the 6-year-old student who shot his first-grade teacher in Virginia. The school district where the shooting took place announced that metal detectors would be installed on campuses, stoking debate on the most effective strategies to prevent gun violence. “It’s really the gun owners who need to be held responsible,” Astor said. He added that gun safety education and licensing is a public health approach that is necessary for reducing gun violence in K-12 schools. “Let’s make that part of health class. Let’s make sure every kid, parent and educator goes through education and hazardous materials safety training in every school in the United States,” Astor said. “That’s a great place to start saving lives and reducing injury or death.”

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Panofsky on Distortion of Science to Further a Racist Agenda

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Undark spoke with public policy professor Aaron Panofsky about soul-searching in the science community after the May 2022 shooting in Buffalo that took 10 lives. The gunman who targeted Black victims cited genetics research as a rationale for his white supremacist views. Panofsky noted that the shooter’s manifesto included “prepackaged, meme-ified research objects” from “various blogs, various components of Reddit and 4chan, and so forth.” Such ready-to-share memes are used by far-right bloggers, white nationalist outlets, amateur scientists and other fringe figures to willfully misinterpret science to further a racist agenda, said Panofsky, director of the UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics. The article also shone a light on large-scale genomic studies aimed at finding genetic solutions to public health and social problems. In addition to fearing that their findings may be twisted in dangerous ways, some researchers acknowledge that the emphasis on genetics might draw attention from the true drivers of these problems.

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An On-the-Ground Partnership to Curb Violence

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A Politico article assessed the Community Violence Intervention Collaborative, a White House initiative that is undergoing an in-depth evaluation by a team from UCLA. With the goal of curbing gun violence, the 18-month initiative has provided funding, training and technical assistance to local officials and community groups around the country. Politico called it “a success story few have heard about,” one that could take years before its impact is fully realized. Adjunct professor Jorja Leap and Karrah Lompa, who lead the Social Justice Research Partnership based at UCLA Luskin Social Welfare, have been documenting the program’s activities in 16 jurisdictions and will report on the strategies that have proven most successful. The evaluation team included Social Welfare PhD student Livier Gutiérrez, who helped create a data snapshot of research collected to date. This month, Leap and Lompa met in Washington, D.C., with Biden administration officials, funders and community safety leaders to reflect on the initiative’s lessons.

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Astor on Strategies for Deterring Gun Violence

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Ron Avi Astor, professor of social welfare, spoke to the Seattle Times about the rise in gun violence across the country and the recent fatal school shooting in Seattle. “In almost every category of school safety, things have gotten better, except for the school shootings,” Astor said. Astor and a group of experts created an eight-point plan to reduce gun violence that recommended that schools steer away from hefty and unnecessary spending and instead focus on community building and climate and culture evaluation. “Twenty-five years ago it was in the millions, and now it’s in the billions and billions and billions of dollars,” Astor said, referring to local and federal spending on K-12 school safety and security. He said it is essential that schools implement strategies rooted in a clear vision for reducing gun violence, one that promotes school safety without hardening schools, increasing budgets and harming students.

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Kaplan on High Rate of Suicide Among White Men

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Mark Kaplan, professor of social welfare, spoke to KERA News about alarmingly high rates of suicide from gun violence in North Texas cities. Over half of the suicides reported in Collin Country, Tarrant County and Dallas County involved a gun. While white men make up about 20% of Collin County’s population, they accounted for 70% of suicides. Kaplan, who researches suicide risk, said men have a higher likelihood of dying by suicide than women. Major life events can serve as a catalyst for a person to commit suicide, he said. Often, suicides are not planned but are the culmination of stressful events paired with mental health issues, leading to a “death of despair.” “The presence of a gun, either in a household or lots of guns in the community, increases the likelihood of a gun death, either homicide, suicide or unintentional,” Kaplan said.

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Astor on School Gun Violence: No Justice, No Closure

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Social Welfare professor Ron Avi Astor spoke to CNN about the ongoing issue of gun violence at U.S. schools. “When there’s a disaster that happens and it’s done and over with, then you could look back and we could come together as a country,” Astor said. “But when it’s happening every week, over and over and over again, there is no justice or closure, because it’s not done. We’re in the midst of it, as a collective, as a country.” Astor said he is optimistic change can come but believes the media must reform the way it reports on shootings, without glamorizing events and polarizing discussions. “This is about … working together with an ideal of who we want to be as a society,” he said, calling for ground-level dialogue that works toward restorative justice. Astor and a group of academics released an eight-point gun violence prevention plan earlier this year.

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Interpreting U.S. Gun Culture for an International Audience

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International news outlets seeking insights into U.S. gun culture and the fallout for the nation’s educational system have called on Social Welfare Professor Ron Avi Astor, an authority on school violence and student well-being. A special report by Beijing News included an extended video interview with Astor, who explained the prominent role of firearms in U.S. history, as well as recent trends and legislation. In a story in Britain’s Guardian about bulletproof steel shelters designed for classrooms, Astor noted that making schools more fortress-like can backfire, turning schools into places of fear that feed the school-to-prison pipeline. He instead called for developing programs that build connections between children and their schools, “so that every teacher knows a little bit about every child’s emotional life and a little bit about their parents.” These programs reduce the incidence of students bringing weapons to school, Astor’s research has found.

Watch the Beijing News interview
Read the Guardian article

 

Astor on New York’s Efforts to Combat Gun Violence

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Social Welfare Professor Ron Avi Astor spoke to the New York Times for a story about the large volume of guns, both legal and illegal, in New York state. Police determined that 13 guns were used in a shootout that killed a college basketball star and wounded eight others at a Harlem community barbecue in June. The article noted that New York is bracing for a surge in gun ownership after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a law that made it difficult to own or carry a handgun legally. “It kind of leaves the police with fewer strategies,” Astor said. In addition to determining whether someone is carrying a gun, officers will have to ascertain whether or not that weapon is legal. New York City’s police commissioner said gun arrests are at a 27-year high up to this point in the year.

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