Why couldn't we stop student violence?

VIOLENT YOUTH: The issue of school violence has received attention for a number of years. The most recent incident involved a gang of students who allegedly used a stun-gun, made unconscious a 17-year old student on his way home and mercilessly shoved his face on the ground.

The young boy required immediate plastic surgery. This tragic incident certainly heightened interest in what steps could be taken to lessen the likelihood of such violence occurring in the future.

The reasons that youth inflict physical and emotional pain on their peers are complex and vary from one person to the next. The picture is also complex when we consider how best to deal with angry, violent youth.

A number of clinicians and researchers have emphasised the importance of a sense of belonging as an essential human need, particularly to the young people.

If students do not feel connected to adults and peers in the school community, they will desperately seek out anyone to satisfy this need for belongingness. Unfortunately, an all-too-familiar scenario is that these lonely youth gravitate towards other students who also feel alienated. Cliques or gangs or in-groups and out-groups are the likely result.

Obviously, the roots of anger and violence stretch beyond the boundaries of school to include the homes and community in which adolescents reside. However, schools are an integral part of the community and thus are in a position to assume an essential role in addressing the problem of alienation and violence.

Most of our principals (to be fair by them), are increasingly regarding student violence as a serious problem. They believe what usually starts as disobedience, bullying and teasing in the lower grades, escalate to obscene gesturing, verbal and physical threats, assault, vandalism, extortion and gang-related activities when students reach secondary school.

Fights erupt over any perceived provocation. Frequently, rival student gangs within a school or from different schools vie for supremacy. At other times clashes start over the smallest of things. They originate from absolutely nothing, continue for a very long time and end in violence.

While there have not been many studies that examine student violence in Sri Lanka, many believe that children in families where both parents are working are often vulnerable. They often lack guidance and may end up on the wrong side of things.

Poverty, violence at home, violent video games, and lack of discipline at school are other reasons commonly cited for violence among youth.

It has been said that such young people need a complete emotional overhaul - a restructuring of their emotional development.

Of course, the school alone cannot effect these changes. Effective interventions must address the multiple determinants of such behaviour including cognition, neuro-physiological problems, and physical health as well as factors related to family, peers, school, community, and the greater society.

What will be the keys to survival for youngsters such as these (and the rest of us, who may become their victims)?

There are three levels of prevention. The purpose of primary prevention is to reduce the incidence of certain problems in the population, to keep disorders from occurring.

Secondary prevention involves the early identification of those who have symptoms of disorder and therapeutic intervention. Tertiary prevention is the treatment of those who are already seriously or chronically ill. Its goal is rehabilitation - enabling an individual to live as useful a life as possible despite some degree of chronic impairment.

Today, we have to address student violent behaviour at all three levels at the same time. The only hope for many violent offenders lies in changing their thinking, a process that requires a lengthy period of time and total supervision.

In many areas, there are legal provisions for involuntary assessment of those who are in danger of harming themselves or others. Sometimes hospitalisation of a depressed individual is the only way to prevent a death.

Within the family and school, we must take every threat seriously and report any threats or gestures of violence to the school principal and the parents of any youngsters involved (potential victims as well as perpetrators).

We must report threats of illegal activity to the police. We must help to educate the public about (a) warning signs of impending violence; (b) assessment, referral, and treatment of individuals at risk of committing violence; and (c) ways to maintain safe environments in the home, school, and community.

At the same time, the school authorities must use strategies that have been proven effective, such as (a) providing early identification, early intervention, appropriate education, and appropriate treatment for students with emotional and behavioral problems; (b) greater involvement of students and parents in the school; (c) involving students in community service projects; (d) decreasing exposure of adolescents to media violence.

The most popular strategy among schools is the Zero Tolerance Policy. This is a 'get tough' initiative, which works on the principle that punishment for violence has to be rapid and in the form of suspension or expulsion. The bottom-line, though, is that if the youth receive timely help, there might be no need for a punishment policy.