Navigating the Ethical Maze of School Safety: A TV Case Study

Hi, my name is Olivia. I have been a Joffe Safety Consultant for the last two and a half years while finishing my doctorate in public health, which is focused on school-based gun violence. Here are my stories (cue Law & Order “dun dun”).

The original intent of this blog post was to tell you what I have learned doing this day in and day out. I have spent the last two-plus years eating, breathing and sleeping—school safety. I have spent countless hours worrying about how my work could impact your children, my children, and the children of the United States. As I sat down to write, not knowing where to start or how to put my knowledge into just a few hundred words, I caught up on some recent Law and Order (I promise there is a point to this).

In Season 26, Episode 25, titled "Report Card", a 13-year-old foster child has shot his teacher. The teacher was going to turn the student in for having a weapon, which would’ve landed him in juvenile detention. You cannot help but empathize with the child who had this tragically sad backstory and claimed he didn’t know the gun was loaded. You are asking yourself how the DA could possibly charge this 13-year-old child with murder. Even the judge admits that although she raised three very competent and brilliant adults, they were idiots at thirteen, all of them. 

Then, the episode progresses, and you learn that the principal not only heard this child had made a threat against the teacher he shot but also that he had a gun in his possession. The principal searched his locker and backpack but did not call the police and did not search the child for a weapon—two large misses. Had the principal called the police, the child would’ve and should’ve been searched. The teacher also likely would have been informed of the threat. It seems that the school did not have a clear behavioral threat assessment process (or if they had one, it was not followed), which in this case, led to murder.

At one point, the DA asks, if someone gets hurt, will you blame the child or the adult who knew better? You want to say the adult, but this episode had me grappling with the morality and the legality of prosecuting educators. Is that really who is at fault? Who gave this child a loaded gun? Is prosecuting an educator who did the best they could with the tools and information they had  any better than prosecuting a child?

The episode concludes with the viewer learning that the child loaded the gun. Does that change your opinion on who is at fault now?

All of this is to say that the study of school safety is constantly evolving. There is not one right answer. We, as a country and judiciary system, have started grappling with who to hold responsible and why more and more in the last five years. This issue will only get more complicated. For this instance specifically, you are seeing exactly why school threats are now starting to be enveloped in mandatory reporting. The concept of “see something, say something” can be the difference maker in school safety. That cannot be the only strategy implemented in order to keep children safe in a place that has been regarded as a safe haven for millions of children from its inception. This has been a place they go to learn, but it has also been a place to get a warm meal, interact with trusted adults, and feel safe enough to try something new. We must protect it at all costs, and that starts with a layered approach to prevent the opportunity for an unsafe situation to arise.

So what can we learn from this and what should we do about it:

• This episode highlights the importance of having a clear Behavior Threat Assessment Process. This includes having a multi-disciplinary group of leaders who each have a role to play in investigating and making decisions, especially when a weapon is on campus. 
• Schools should proactively build relationships with local PD and clearly define their role on the Behavior Threat Assessment Team.
• There must be a clear process for systematically investigating and documenting risk factors and warning signs for students of concern. 
• We must all continue to learn from situations and adapt our best practices accordingly. 

Our team is always here to talk to you about how to implement these learnings into your school. Some of our most meaningful coaching, consulting, and partnership conversations come out of debriefing scenarios - ones that have happened at the school, in the media, or in fictitious examples. Have a movie, episode, or book you’d like us to think through with you? Let us know!