By Erin Sweet
March 2020 changed the way we operate not only in public spaces, but also in public schools. Not only were students sent away from school buildings for at least a year, but when they were brought back, there was friction and fighting between students, parents, and school staff around Covid policies, classroom content, and mental health responses. At this point, all schools are back in person, but some students have not been in a classroom since two grade levels ago—an especially challenging scenario for students that also transitioned from one level of schooling to the next (i.e. primary to elementary, elementary to middle, or middle to high). This gap causes fundamental gaps in not only content learning, but also skills-based learning, like social-emotional skills to handle conflict.[1] On top of this, many students lost caregivers during the pandemic so there is an added layer of trauma blanketing child development and learning in 2023.[2] Even though we know all of this, the focus has largely not been on student mental health and well-being.[3] Administrators tout it in staff or board meetings, but the major concern is on the Covid learning gap and “catching students up” to where they “should” be.[4]
So, what happens when you take undeveloped conflict skills and unprocessed trauma and then add a grade-level curriculum students are not prepared for? Violence.[5] A seventh grader does not have the same expectations as a ninth grader. When you ask a ninth grader with the school skills of a seventh grader to perform like a ninth grader, they act out.[6] This results in more online fights, physical fights, online threats to the school, and off-campus violence.[7] When violence erupts schools often have only two options: school closures or student suspensions.[8] Both options only exacerbate the problem: further removing the most at risk students from the classroom and placing them even further behind in academic and socio-emotional learning. From there we can only expect the cycle to continue.
Even after almost all schools have returned for a full year of in person learning, we have done nothing to cope with these learning gaps, and it shows. Just last month a teacher in Virginia Beach was intentionally shot by one of her students.[9] Access to guns and Second Amendment rights aside, there have already been seven school shootings this year.[10] Last year saw the most school shootings in the last five years, and 2021 saw eleven more school shootings than the pre-Covid years.[11] With, at best, inadequate, and, at worst, no additional funding for school counselors or social workers in most schools, the trend likely will only go up.[12] We know that students pushed out of schools end up further up the school to prison pipeline.[13] Rather than keeping our students where they should be, we’re sending ill-equipped children into the juvenile justice system. The tools these students lack to express their emotions cannot be found in the system, and this pushout only further populates our already full prisons. Rather than forcing our students back into schools and back into grade molds they no longer fit, we should make room for their emotions and their trauma. Only then can we start to unravel the complicated mess of violence we’ve created.
[1] Laura Meckler & Valerie Strauss, Back to School has Brought Guns Fighting and Acting Out,The Washington Post (Oct. 26, 2021), https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/10/26/schools-violence-teachers-guns-fights/.
[2] Christine Vestal, COVID Harmed Kids’ Mental Health—And Schools Are Feeling It, The Pew Charitable Trusts (Nov. 9, 2021), https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2021/11/08/covid-harmed-kids-mental-health-and-schools-are-feeling-it.
[3] Christine Vestal, COVID Harmed Kids’ Mental Health—And Schools Are Feeling It, The Pew Charitable Trusts (Nov. 9, 2021), https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2021/11/08/covid-harmed-kids-mental-health-and-schools-are-feeling-it.
[4] Christine Vestal, COVID Harmed Kids’ Mental Health—And Schools Are Feeling It, The Pew Charitable Trusts (Nov. 9, 2021), https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2021/11/08/covid-harmed-kids-mental-health-and-schools-are-feeling-it.
[5] Laura Meckler & Valerie Strauss, Back to School has Brought Guns Fighting and Acting Out,The Washington Post (Oct. 26, 2021), https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/10/26/schools-violence-teachers-guns-fights/; Anya Kamenetz, 6 in 10 Teachers Experienced Physical Violence or Verbal Aggression During COVID, NPR (Mar. 19, 2022), https://www.npr.org/2022/03/17/1087137571/school-violence-teachers-covid; Kalyn Belsha, Pandemic Effect: More Fights and Class Disruptions, New Data Show, Chalkbeat (Jul. 6, 2022), https://www.chalkbeat.org/2022/7/6/23197094/student-fights-classroom-disruptions-suspensions-discipline-pandemic.
[6] Kalyn Belsha, Pandemic Effect: More Fights and Class Disruptions, New Data Show, Chalkbeat (Jul. 6, 2022), https://www.chalkbeat.org/2022/7/6/23197094/student-fights-classroom-disruptions-suspensions-discipline-pandemic; Anya Kamenetz, 6 in 10 Teachers Experienced Physical Violence or Verbal Aggression During COVID, NPR (Mar. 19, 2022), https://www.npr.org/2022/03/17/1087137571/school-violence-teachers-covid.
[7] Laura Meckler & Valerie Strauss, Back to School has Brought Guns Fighting and Acting Out,The Washington Post (Oct. 26, 2021), https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/10/26/schools-violence-teachers-guns-fights/.
[8] Laura Meckler & Valerie Strauss, Back to School has Brought Guns Fighting and Acting Out,The Washington Post (Oct. 26, 2021), https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/10/26/schools-violence-teachers-guns-fights/.
[9] Abby Zwerner: Six-year-old Who Shot His Teacher Used Mother’s Gun, BBC News (Jan. 10, 2023), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64210387.
[10] School Shootings This Year: How Many and Where, EducationWeek (Feb. 16, 2023), https://www.edweek.org/leadership/school-shootings-this-year-how-many-and-where/2023/01.
[11] Evie Blad, Laura Baker, Hyon-Young Kim, & Holly Peele, School Shootings in 2022: 4 Key Takeaways, EducationWeek (Jan. 27, 2023), https://www.edweek.org/leadership/school-shootings-in-2022-4-key-takeaways/2022/12.
[12] Christine Vestal, COVID Harmed Kids’ Mental Health—And Schools Are Feeling It, The Pew Charitable Trusts (Nov. 9, 2021), https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2021/11/08/covid-harmed-kids-mental-health-and-schools-are-feeling-it; Anya Kamenetz, 6 in 10 Teachers Experienced Physical Violence or Verbal Aggression During COVID, NPR (Mar. 19, 2022), https://www.npr.org/2022/03/17/1087137571/school-violence-teachers-covid.
[13] Kalyn Belsha, Pandemic Effect: More Fights and Class Disruptions, New Data Show, Chalkbeat (Jul. 6, 2022), https://www.chalkbeat.org/2022/7/6/23197094/student-fights-classroom-disruptions-suspensions-discipline-pandemic.