When teens threaten violence, a community responds with compassion

[Jilly_in_VA]

Psychologist John Van Dreal has spent almost 30 years working with troubled kids. Still, it's always unsettling to get the kind of phone call he received one morning eight years ago as he was on his way to a meeting.

"I got a call from the assistant principal at North [Salem] High, reporting that a student had made some threats on the Internet," remembers Van Dreal, the director of safety and risk management for Salem-Keizer Public Schools in Salem, Ore.

"There were a number of statements about hitting people with pipes, breaking knees, bashing heads with pipes and looking for help in doing so," Van Dreal says.

And there was more.

"F*** North Salem High School," the student had written. "Seriously, it's asking for a f***ing shooting or something."

Van Dreal says students who saw the post were frightened. They told their parents, who called the school administration. Faculty and staff were worried, too, he notes. This particular student had been in trouble before, but this time it felt different.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/02/13/693136117/when-teens-threaten-violence-a-community-responds-with-compassion
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This seems like the way to handle it, not the school-to-prison pipeline.

[Thomas Hurt]

1. To the fascist life is war. Life to them has to have has threats and enemies by the "other".

Fascists fear mongering and scapegoat...militancy, arming yourself against the threat, makes them feel like heroes and important. You aren't special unless someone is out to get you.

Seems a simple jump for an enraged and unstable young man to make in the fascist culture the right is promoting everyday.

[crickets]

2. I'm glad Mishka's story has a happy ending.

It shows that with caring intervention, angry and rebellious teens can be turned away from acting out with violence. That's a good thing.

My problem with this approach is that it didn't seem to address the root of Mishka's anger, other than to send him to a better school and to tell him to let the anger go. He was physically bullied to the point of needing serious medical care TWICE. He permanently lost vision in one eye. Did anyone ever address the bullies? Did anyone ever try to change their tendency toward violence?