TITLE: Uvalde shooting victims’ families file lawsuits against Meta, video game cos., others
https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/personal-injury/uvalde-shooting-victims-families-file-lawsuits-against-meta-video-game-cos-others/
EXCERPT: The parents and guardians of the 17 children killed in a mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022, filed lawsuits against Daniel Defense, Meta and Activision over their alleged contributions to the deadliest school shooting in United States history.
The Uvalde shooter played Activision’s Call of Duty first-person shooter video game, visited Call of Duty Instagram pages and viewed advertisements to purchase a Daniel Defense DDM4v7 AR-15 rifle through Instagram, the lawsuits claim.
“Over the last 15 years, two of America’s largest technology companies—Defendants Activision and Meta—have collaborated with the firearms industry in a scheme that makes the Joe Camel campaign look laughably harmless, even quaint,” the Uvalde lawsuits say.
The Uvalde shooting victims’ families allege Instagram offers firearm manufacturers an unsupervised channel to speak directly to minors in their homes, at school or in the middle of the night through advertisements.
The Parkland, Fla., and Sandy Hook Elementary shooters also devotedly played Call of Duty, the lawsuit claims.
Activision is “chewing up alienated teenage boys and spitting out mass shooters,” the Uvalde shooting victims’ families claim.
TITLE: How School Shootings Are Changing the Design of American Classrooms
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/school-shooting-architecture-classroom-design-17b104ad
EXCERPT: High-profile school shootings, and the fear they spread, are shaping how architects design the modern American school. The safety features, some required by state law, include measures meant to keep armed perpetrators out and to help first responders.
“The typical challenge is to have the building seem very welcoming and yet at the same point not penetrable,” said Jerry Lammers, principal of Alamo Architects in San Antonio.
Here are some of the ways school districts are modernizing schools to combat shootings in their buildings:
Some architects have returned to building hallway walls with concrete blocks. That keeps a shooter from firing through the wall and into a classroom, says David Luttrell, a principal at DAG Architects in Pensacola, Fla.
Wing walls jutting into hallways give police cover in an active shooting. Architect Matt Slagle of Michigan-based TowerPinkster said police reviewing his plan for a new high school requested the feature.
Lockdown buttons in hallways summon police and automatically close hallway doors, sealing off most of the school.
Doors are positioned to limit visibility from the hall, allowing students and staff to hide from view. Small vertical windows on doors also help. Classroom doors can be locked remotely using magnetic release systems.
Window blind systems can be quickly activated to cover classroom windows.
Architects say some districts want doors or windows that can be opened quickly so students and staff can escape from ground-level classrooms.
Enclosed interior spaces provide safe outdoor access to grass and sunshine--a key feature of an under-construction school designed by architect Nicki Marrone of Alamo Architects in San Antonio.
Finding the right balance is key, says Judy Hoskens, a Las Vegas-based principal and senior planner at the global firm DLR Group. “Is it going to be a prison,” she said, “or is it going to be a school where everyone is welcome to learn?”
TITLE: A checklist no one wants: 8 steps to take after a school shooting
https://hechingerreport.org/a-checklist-no-one-wants-8-steps-to-take-after-a-school-shooting/
EXCERPT: Over the past 30 years, school shootings have “changed the culture of education,” Marleen Wong, CEO of the Center for Safe and Resilient Schools and Workplaces, said at the recent event. “It is possible to recover but it’s a very difficult journey.”
Wong said that after many school shooting there have been “deaths of despair,” or students or staff dying by suicide. To help prevent this, schools need to deploy mental health professionals immediately after violence, she said.
Jennifer Freeman, an associate professor at the University of Connecticut and crisis coordinator at the National Center on Positive Behavior Interventions and Support, said recovery happens in phases. In the week following an incident, the focus is on understanding what happened and dealing with the immediate psychological issues students and staff may be experiencing.
In the next, roughly month-long period, communities often unite around their schools. But as months go by, external support often goes away and people begin to struggle with the reality of just how long recovery can take. That’s also the time when school officials start to consider systems for rebuilding.
But recovery isn’t linear; timelines differ and recovery efforts won’t look exactly the same in every school, Freeman said.
She and other speakers, including representatives from the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District in Texas, the Maine School Safety Center and the Delaware nonprofit Children & Families First, provided recommendations for recovery. Here are a few of those suggestions:
· Don’t attempt new projects or shifts in school district strategy in the days and months after a crisis. “Your district’s typical capacity to adjust and change is going to be really limited,” Freeman said.
· Consider increasing staffing and resources, at least temporarily, to meet the therapeutic and educational needs of students and staff. Many districts have found it helpful to appoint a recovery coordinator to help manage the recovery process and create a written recovery plan.
· Select external help carefully. In the aftermath of an incident, schools are often approached by vendors and other outside groups pitching programs related to safety, trauma recovery and mental health. “[M]ake sure that any new practice that you consider adopting is evidence-based and is truly aligned,” said Freeman.
· Collect several sources of data, including school climate surveys, that can help districts find patterns in how the recovery is going – for example, by identifying which students and faculty are most vulnerable.
· Focus on building and maintaining strong relationships between staff and students. “It becomes really important as a school community to focus on reestablishing those connections to make sure that all students and staff are welcomed and feel connected,” Freeman said.
· Build a relationship of trust with local law enforcement teams before an incident occurs, so those teams are familiar with the particular sensitivities of responding to crises in schools and don’t re-traumatize students.
· Model and practice with students emotional regulation skills such as deep breathing and techniques to calm anxiety and stress.
· Turn to resources like the guide created by the Principal Recovery Network, a group of principals who have experienced school shootings on or near their campuses.
Martin said that what helped her was eventually seeking out professional trauma therapy. “As a teacher, you’re really just going to be like ‘No, I’m fine. I can do this. I gotta push through for the kids,’” Martin said.
But, she added, “You can’t help other people, unless you help yourself.”
SEE ALSO:
YouTube toughens policy on gun videos and youth; critics say proof will be in enforcement
https://apnews.com/article/youtube-gun-violence-tiktok-google-school-shootings-d3bcf475e067de8d8d898d4a6d02086c
1,500 school personnel linked to ‘active shooter,’ emergency app
https://warwickonline.com/stories/1500-school-personnel-linked-to-active-shooter-emergency-app,253304
Richmond Public Schools to have clear backpack policy for students starting July 1
https://www.axios.com/local/richmond/2024/06/04/rps-richmond-schools-clear-backpack-policy
National Safety Shelters' Mini Saferoom Project at Concord School District Applauded by Community
https://www.ibtimes.com/national-safety-shelters-mini-saferoom-project-concord-school-district-applauded-community-3733715