We should not train students against attacks, says researcher – 09/22/2023 – Education

A reference in the study of attacks on schools, Sherry Towers, from the United States, strongly recommended that students not receive training against this type of crime. “In addition to being a trauma, actions like this do not take into account that future aggressors are also there, learning to circumvent security strategies.”

Towers participated in a debate at the 7th International Congress of Education Journalism, organized by Jeduca (association of education journalists), this week in São Paulo, and discussed the coverage of attacks on schools with Telma Vinha, a researcher at Unicamp who studies this type of attack. of violence in Brazil.

Towers said student training is common in the US. In her presentation, she showed images of these actions with young people lying on the floor, playing the role of victims in a simulated attack, and children cowering under desks.

“My children suffered the trauma of going through these trainings. It’s something that gives children nightmares,” she says. “And the problem is not just the trauma, but that the future aggressor is in the same audience thinking about shortcuts to act”, she reinforced. “I strongly recommend not training children,” she said in the presentation.

After the debate, in conversation with the Sheet, Towers stated that this type of training could even be designed for teachers and other school staff, but not for students, especially children. She also reported that, in the United States, police stations were installed in schools.

“In this scenario, conflicts between students, which should be resolved with pedagogical support, end up with the police, and children end up being arrested,” she said.

This police approach, according to her, has not been able to reduce this type of violence. For Towers, it is necessary to work on other prevention fronts.

“We have to think of these attacks as diseases. There is not just one action that can deal with this, but a multifaceted approach,” he said. “The fight against Covid, for example, takes place with masks, social distancing, vaccines, treatment for the sick, etc.”, she pointed out. “With violence in schools, we must also act on different fronts, and not just think about the moment of an attack.”

She says it is necessary to act when the potential aggressor is in the phase of fantasizing about committing an attack, planning the action and preparing it. “If we only focus on attacking, we neglect the previous steps, in which we could act for prevention.”

It is necessary to identify children who are experiencing bullying, with mental problems, anxiety, difficulties on the internet, he said. “We have to support children who are suffering. They are more susceptible to being co-opted by radical ideas.”

The researcher says she has “a dream”. “It’s something simple: an app that all children access once a month and answer questions like: ‘Do you feel safe at home? At school? On the internet? Are you having any problems?’ This would help us have resources to support these children.”

Towers is a data scientist in the United States and has studied the spread of contagion in epidemiology for many years, an experience that led her to create a model for analyzing the so-called contagion effect in mass attacks.

“I began to understand how human behavior spreads like a disease,” he said. “Fear, hate and panic can be very contagious in a population, as can violent crime.”

Towers and other researchers at the University of Arizona concluded that 20% to 30% of attacks in the US occur through contagion. One attack, according to research, tends to lead to others occurring over a period of about two weeks.

This contagion effect can be caused by media coverage, in the researchers’ opinion. “Depending on the way an attack is exposed, the level of detail, the coverage can become a roadmap for future attacks,” he said. “If the media shows what clothes, weapons and strategies the attackers used, it can help in planning crimes. It is necessary to assess whether it is necessary to publish so many details.”

Telma Vinha praised the stance of the Brazilian press, which began to discuss the paths for this coverage, especially in light of the recent attacks. “What happened was commendable, we had self-regulation, and it was not uncritical.”

Vinha recalled that content related to the attacks, especially videos, even when not published by the press, circulates on social media. “These are communities that share assassination tutorials, how to make bombs, get weapons. Members celebrate the attacks and idolize the attackers.”

She said that after action by the federal government in April, there was a drop in communities like this, but they started to grow again in June and July. “It is naive to think that they will disappear without very strong regulation of the internet.”

Young people, he highlighted, feel welcomed by these communities, and it is welcoming that the school needs to offer them. “Public policy needs to focus on this.”

The researcher brought updated data on attacks on Brazilian schools: from 2001 to June 2023 there were 33 attacks, 18 of which (54.5%) occurred after the pandemic (as of February 2022). The total number of victims was 130, 33 of whom died. “We have seen many governors and mayors reinforce security in socioeconomically vulnerable regions, but the survey shows that attacks occur mainly among medium to high-level schools.”