EAST PROVIDENCE — With the first day of school less than two weeks away, an expert on supporting children after trauma and disasters talked to several hundred teachers, school administrators, and police officers about how they can help children if the worst happens here, in their own schools.
“You send your children to school, and you have an assumptive view that they will come home at the end of the day. But we know we can’t count on that,” said Dr. Robin Gurwitch, a professor in the Duke University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Center for Child and Family Health. “We can’t tell kids, ‘I can’t promise there won’t be a school shooting.’ You can say we are doing absolutely everything we know to keep you safe… and I would never send you some place I didn’t think you’d be safe.”
Gurwitch was speaking as part of the conference Thursday for the Rhode Island School Safety Committee, which included FBI agents from the Rhode Island Joint Terrorism Task Force on indicators of someone planning violence and detectives from the Rhode Island computer crimes task force discussing predators on social media.
“I think the effort Rhode Island is taking is moving the needle forward in your state, so hopefully it doesn’t happen here,” she said.
The devastating mass murder of children and their teachers in Uvalde, Texas, in May prompted action in Rhode Island, leading to the passage of three gun-safety bills. Governor Dan McKee, the State Police, and the state Department of Education also announced a collaboration between superintendents and local law enforcement to immediately identify potential school safety issues. McKee also set aside $500,000 to pay for repairs and security upgrades.
Lincoln Superintendent Lawrence P. Filippelli and State Police Sergeant Nicholas Rivello, who are members of the Rhode Island School Safety Committee, said that funding helped school districts make some needed repairs.
They said that Thursday’s conference with teachers and police officers from around the state was intended to address the emotional and psychological issues behind school safety. They said they know their students and their families are seeing the images from school shootings in Uvalde, Texas; Parkland, Fla.; and Newtown, Conn. and worrying about what could happen in Rhode Island.
“I cannot help but be saddened and appalled at the need for discussion of these topics. I wish earnestly there was no need for this discussion,” US Attorney Zachary Cunha told conference attendees at East Providence High School. “In this day and age, when we all carry in our heads and hearts the testimonies, words, and images conjured up by the accounts of students who survived the hideous indecencies of Sandy Hook, or Uvalde, or Columbine, we know all too well that threat of mortality reaches even into our schools and our classrooms. We do our kids no good service by pretending that school shootings, threats, and violence are not part of our current reality.”
The sessions were intended to bring teachers and law enforcement together to understand and share information. Statistics have shown that 66 percent of shooters have told someone in advance of their plans, and 89 percent have displayed some concerning behavior, Cunha said.
That gives opportunities to spot warning signs and take action, he said.
The FBI agents urged school officials to also pay attention to certain changes in behavior as possible indicators of someone who could be planning violence. In most cases, the perpetrators have left signs of what they were planning, such as aligning themselves with extremist ideologies, buying up weapons and ammunition, writing online manifestos, even telling people of their plans or posting on social media.
But sometimes, preventative measures are not enough.
Gurwitch’s expertise on how children experience trauma and grief was intended to help teachers and police officers understand students’ reactions after a disaster, whether it’s a tragedy within their own family or a major incident, like a school shooting, that affects their community.
Since the mass shooting in 1999 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., there have been 392 people killed in school shootings and 1,119 injured, Gurwitch said. There were fewer school shootings in 2020, during the height of the pandemic, but by 2021, as schools reopened, the threats and violence returned.
And now the first day of school is around the corner. “They are coming to school with great hopes and dreams, and if something happens that disrupts that, a social contract is broken,” Gurwitch said.
While school shootings were the focus of the conference, Gurwitch said that teachers, school nurses, and school resource officers should also pay attention for signs that children are suffering from disruptions and tragedies within their families.
Their grief and trauma may reveal itself in changes in behavior — truancy, apathy, poor grades, sudden rages, and depression — and physiological responses, such as startling easily, and suffering from headaches and fatigue.
“Every single day you are at school, the likelihood you are seeing a grieving child is real, even if they don’t communicate it,” Gurwitch said. “Sometimes (families) don’t tell us what’s happening.”
She urged those at the conference to be mindful of how children respond to tragedies and how grief takes its own individual path.
“Children are resilient because we do something,” Gurwitch said. “They aren’t going to just be OK unless we do something.”
Amanda Milkovits can be reached at amanda.milkovits@globe.com. Follow her @AmandaMilkovits.