In 1975, only . Today, 44% do. A large reason for the increase is the , which led to the creation of the federal Community Oriented Policing Services to oversee funds for the hiring of police in schools. Another reason is the in 1999. From the federal government down to individual districts, the idea that schools need police officers to keep kids safe is prevalent.

That tension is personal: parents and caregivers come to the job with the hang-ups we鈥檝e amassed since childhood. We鈥檙e famously prone to imposing some version of those onto our own kids 鈥� however hard we try to free them. 

The tension is also social and cultural 鈥� even political. We鈥檙e all trying to teach our kids to stand up for themselves in the tough, pushy, sometimes violent world out there even as we coach them toward leaning vulnerably into grace, compassion, sharing and forgiveness. And a lot of it involves hiding uglier truths about the world from them. But even that only works for so long, because they鈥檒l eventually outgrow our abilities to deceive and distract 鈥� and nothing builds resentment in adulthood like realizing how much you were lied to in childhood. 

This is beautiful, impossible work. We鈥檙e all messing up all the time, no matter how hard we push and strive 鈥� and no matter how much we try to let go and back off. 

Parenting is even harder in moments of public fear and stress. As a father of two, I spent much of Donald Trump鈥檚 first term wrestling to guard my children鈥檚 faith in virtues like patience, kindness, honesty, personal integrity and responsibility. I tried to coach them into believing in the power of peaceful, democratic institutions that represent the will of the public. I tried, in other words, to swim upstream against the prevailing Trumpist political currents. 

Now I鈥檓 a father of three. I鈥檓 dreading the implications of his second term 鈥� for my kids, for the work of raising them, for our schools and for our democracy. It鈥檚 a much more difficult project this time. How can families teach our children to believe in a better, kinder, fairer world 鈥� when they see glory, honor and power repeatedly rendered to a man like this? Can advocates for better educational opportunities for all children build a safer, kinder country with Trump unavoidably at its helm?

It鈥檚 hard to imagine. His return has launched a genuinely bleak era driven by a movement that targets and marginalizes people 鈥� 鈥� to gain power, whether they鈥檙e immigrants or transgender kids who just want to use the bathroom in peace. This is a nightmare for parents trying to raise their kids to be fundamentally polite, to stand up for the weak among us, to choose grace over scorn and peace over violence. 

If you think this is overwrought, please remember that Trump鈥檚 first arrival in office a national spike in behavior at schools. We鈥檙e seeing this time . That鈥檚 not an accident. Trump is persistently, constantly a bully, one who reserves , and   any woman who with the slightest .

This is incessant intimidation that any middle schooler would recognize, that any parent would hate to see imposed on their kid. It鈥檚 sexism that any young girl would instantly view as infuriating and behavior that any decent parent or caregiver would find unacceptable in their son.

What鈥檚 more, Trump is cynically nihilistic. That鈥檚 why many of the president-elect鈥檚 colleagues . He has been caught and never admits his deceit, even when hurt other people. This year, Trump baselessly accused Haitian immigrants in Ohio of stealing and eating pets: innocent people 鈥� immigrants and native-born Americans alike 鈥� , some closing . Note: immigrants community members than native-born Americans.

Trump鈥檚 responses to the pandemic were probably his most consequential distortions. He and insisted that the pandemic was under control and easily manageable. He promoted and , unscientific 鈥渢reatments鈥� 鈥� . People because believed . 

Any family would recognize a kid with Trump鈥檚 penchant for selfish betrayal and willful deceit as a terrible friend or classmate. No family would want an adult who treated people so carelessly in charge of their child鈥檚 safety or well-being. 

, Trump鈥檚 is . He routinely muses about using force against political opponents, journalists, and protestors. Not coincidentally, in an October 2024 poll, were sure that there would be a peaceful transfer of power after the election, what was once an unshakeable tenet of our democracy.

Even if you鈥檙e confident that you can set a strong enough example for kids to be a bulwark against this behavior, that still won鈥檛 solve for the most substantive issue: Trumpist politics have consistently failed to address the very real problems that the U.S. faces 鈥� including and particularly the ones preoccupying U.S. young adults. 

For instance, while a 2023 poll showed that American kids are , Trump and his party are pushing to , , , and close the Department of Education. None of these are real solutions. 

Families in my community tell me they鈥檙e struggling to explain the present state of American democracy to their children. One says their middle schooler keeps bringing them media articles where Trump supporters express surprise that their preferred candidate absolutely plans to follow through on his campaign promises around , , and . 鈥淲hy did they vote for him then?鈥� they say their kid asks. 鈥淲hat did they think would happen?鈥� 

Trump has put families in a terrible situation. It鈥檚 hard to explain why men who violently assaulted law enforcement en route to desecrating the U.S. Capitol are touted as heroes and . It鈥檚 hard to look at all the violent, undemocratic vengeance Trump has promised and insist to kids that nonviolent politics is core to our democracy. 

See, kids are relatively sophisticated risk detectors 鈥� they know real dangers from partisan hysteria. That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 particularly difficult to tell them to be patient now and to trust in the democratic process, to believe that the adults will get their acts together and work on real problems. It鈥檚 hard to believe that the system will self-correct after you鈥檝e spent another math period under your desk because there鈥檚 another active shooter in the neighborhood, or even worse 鈥� , as just happened again last week in Madison, Wisconsin. 

Nonetheless, the vast majority of families in my social orbit are grimly hoping they can perhaps pretend the situation away. They鈥檙e hoping that Trump won鈥檛 be who he鈥檚 been for the past decade, that he鈥檒l step up instead and act like a prudent statesman that they can safely ignore. Most are planning to actively distract their kids from American public discourse, to try to keep them from internalizing the next four years as 鈥渘ormal.鈥� 

A lot of education reformers sound similar notes. They鈥檇 like to set all this aside and just get on with their lives and careers and work with Trump to overhaul the federal role in education or expand school choice or somesuch. They鈥檇 like to pretend like Trump鈥檚 behavior can be tolerated or ignored. 

I guess I hope they鈥檙e right. But I think we all know they aren鈥檛 鈥� and so do the kids. 

The views expressed here are the author鈥檚 alone and not those of any organization with which he is affiliated.

In 2023, two in ten teens were bullied at school and one in ten did not attend due to safety concerns, 4% increases since 2021. Two percent more were injured or threatened at school. About one in ten experienced sexual violence, roughly the same amount as two years ago, according to 20,000 high schoolers surveyed nationwide for the latest iteration of the CDC鈥檚 Youth Risk and Behavior survey.

For the first time, the CDC鈥檚 2023 survey prompted teens to reflect on racism, unfair discipline and social media use. Nearly one third of students reported being 鈥渢reated badly or unfairly at school because of their race or ethnicity鈥� by educators or peers.

Some key indicators show 鈥減rogress鈥� in combatting the youth mental health crisis: About 10% of Black students reported attempting suicide in 2023, down from 14% in 2021. At the same time, fewer female and Hispanic students seriously considered suicide or experienced persistent sadness or hopelessness in 2023 than in 2021. But roughly half of both groups still experience depressive symptoms, and at rates higher than national averages. 

“The data released today show improvements to a number of metrics that measure young people’s mental well-being 鈥� progress we can build on. However, this work is far from complete,鈥� said Debra Houry, chief medical officer with the agency, in a press release last week. 鈥淓very child should feel safe and supported, and CDC will continue its work to turn this data into action until we reach that goal.” 

Only about half of teens felt close to people in their school, with key demographic groups reporting being especially vulnerable: Girls, LGBTQ and Native youth were forced into or experienced risky behavior more than their peers across nearly all metrics, including substance use, physical and sexual violence, depression, and suicidality. 

The general rise in aggressive behavior, while concerning, is not particularly surprising to experts.

鈥淲e are still seeing a long-tail of effect from the height of the pandemic with kids having been isolated鈥� The ninth grader of today is still a bit less mature, not as good at problem solving, not as clear in their communication with peers, especially when it comes to conflict,鈥� said child psychologist and Boston-area schools consultant Deborah Offner.

Students’ sexual activity and drug use overall mirrored rates from 2021, significantly declining over the last decade. Fewer teens have ever had sex, from about half to one in three. But those that have engaged in more risky behavior: fewer used condoms or were tested for STIs. 

While overall declines in depressive symptoms and suicidality are not 鈥済iant,鈥� said Offner, 鈥渁s we emerge from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, kids in my orbit are overall doing better on average than they were a few years ago. Most of that is [thanks to] the reentry into the social environment of school and activities.鈥�

Recommending stronger health education and opportunities for young people to build relationships, belonging at school, the CDC urged schools to . Some ideas for schools include facilitating mentorship or advisory opportunities for older students to be role models for younger students, who may be feeling lost in their first years in high school, and training all school staff to be strong listeners, 鈥渂ecause you never know who a kid is going to tap into,鈥� Offner said. 

Below are five key findings from the report: 

1. Violence and bullying increased 2% and 4%, respectively, from 2021 to 2023, with about one in ten avoiding school for safety concerns and two in ten being bullied. 

Sexual violence was as prevalent in 2023 as it was in 2021: roughly one in ten teens. Girls and LGBTQ youth were more likely than their peers to experience sexual and physical violence. 

The frequency of bullying at school, students report, increased 4% since 2021, bumping back up to pre-pandemic levels. LGBTQ students experienced bullying the most of any subgroup, with three in ten having been bullied and two in ten missing school because of safety fears.

2. 2023 saw a 2% decline in the share of kids persistently sad, hopeless or making suicide plans, but significantly more experience depression symptoms than did in 2013.

Four in ten teens on average reported consistent depression symptoms, up from three in ten just a decade ago. While 4% fewer girls experienced such symptoms than and 3% less seriously considered suicide than in 2021, the proportion of girls experiencing depressive symptoms is much higher than their peers: over five in ten, 53%.

Among LGBTQ youth, six in ten felt persistently sad or hopeless, and two in ten attempted suicide.

Offner said while social media is often scapegoated as the core driver of depressive symptoms, the most common reasons youth cite as causes of internal conflicts are family or friend-related, like witnessing parents鈥� economic uncertainty or emotional instability, and working through friendship disagreements. 

Many, she added, are also feeling climate anxiety and worried about material needs more than other generations 鈥� their parents placing intense pressure to succeed academically and go onto lucrative careers. 

However social media does serve as a 鈥渟ocial comparison accelerator,鈥� she said, where teens may compare themselves to others or feel bad about being excluded from activities. 

Native teens 鈥� the subgroup spending least amount of time on social media according to the CDC, with about half using it several times a day 鈥� are still the subgroup experiencing highest rates of poor mental health and persistent depressive symptoms. 

3. One third of teens experienced racism, and nearly two in ten reported being unfairly disciplined. 

With the CDC asking for the first time, 32% of high school students reported being 鈥渢reated badly or unfairly in school because of their race.鈥� Asian, multiracial, and Black students reported this more often than peers, at 57%, 49%, and 46% respectively.

On average, 19% of teens were 鈥渦nfairly disciplined鈥� at school in 2023, with male, Native, Black and multiracial students reporting at a rate 3-13% above average. One in three Native youth reported being unfairly disciplined, more than any other race or ethnicity.

4. No significant changes in teens鈥� sexual behavior since 2021. Overall, students are having less sex than in 2013. 

While three in ten teens reported having had sex, down from about five in ten a decade ago; only a third used some form of oral birth control, and half used condoms. 

Six percent of teens polled had four or more sexual partners in 2023, compared to 15% the decade prior. 

Some reasons for the decline may be increased immaturity, said Offner, which is impacting kids鈥� relationship experience. She has also witnessed more young people express ownership of their bodies and wanting to go slowly in their sexual experiences, 鈥淚 think they鈥檙e learning from the mistakes of previous generations, too.鈥� 

5. Alcohol, marijuana, and illicit drug consumption is declining. But vulnerable student populations 鈥� LGBTQ, Native youth, and girls 鈥� used more than their peers. 

In 2023, about 22% of teens reported drinking alcohol, a significant decrease from 35% ten years prior. The number is slightly higher for girls, with about one in four drinking. While the proportion of Black kids drinking increased from 2021 to 2023, their rate is still under average, at 17%. 

Roughly the same amount used marijuana as did two years ago, about 17%, down from 23% in 2013.

Only about one in ten used illicit drugs, like psychedelics and stimulants, or misused prescription opioids. Teens鈥� illicit drug use has declined 6% overall in the last decade. 

Offner observed teens today are a little more health cautious, and have witnessed more siblings and peers practice sobriety intentionally. 鈥淚t鈥檚 much more acceptable to say that you don’t use them or aren’t interested in using them,鈥� she added. 

If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Additional resources are available at . For LGBTQ mental health support, you can contact toll-free support line at 866-488-7386.

Top challenges in more than half of the country鈥檚 schools were students being unprepared or disruptive in the classroom, according to the Department of Education鈥檚 research arm in . 

For 40-45% of schools, student learning and staff morale was also limited by students鈥� 鈥渢rouble鈥� working with partners or in groups and use of cell phones, laptops, or other tech when not permitted. In 75% of schools, students鈥� 鈥渓ack of focus鈥� moderately or severely negatively impacted learning and staff morale. 

Fighting and bullying were also pervasive: In about one in five schools, physical fights occurred about once a month, while weapons were confiscated at 45% of schools. Thirty percent report cyberbullying is a weekly occurrence; for 11%, it is daily.

Researchers say while overall, key adverse student behaviors have been on a downswing compared to prior generations, such as illicit drug use, violent crime and teen birth rates, several forces are compounding for students and impacting their wellbeing: High rates of trauma, a fraught political climate, and feeling they are being left behind, or unseen in school.

鈥淟ook what these students have gone through 鈥� not only the pandemic, through wars. Through a tumultuous, divisive political environment in the last six or seven years that’s only intensifying between right and left, between Black and white, between immigrant and non-immigrant. [Those separations] are filtering into schools and classes, perhaps with an awareness that we have not had before,鈥� said Ron Astor, UCLA professor of social welfare and expert on bullying, school violence and culture. 

Students are also witnessing state legislatures and local school boards limit what classrooms can and cannot teach, leading them to question whether they belong in their school, he said. The atmosphere is impacting families across the political divide: 鈥淚f parents and society see the school as teaching the wrong thing, doing the wrong thing, if you’re not reflected in that school 鈥� that’s going to impact your attention, too.鈥� 

From coast to coast, districts are weighing phone bans amid rising concerns about bullying and distractions. But some researchers say solely nixing phones without boosting mental health supports or addressing overall school culture wouldn鈥檛 curb the negative attitudes students may be forming about school and the purpose of their education. 

Astor said some young people are experiencing conditions like ADHD, depression and PTSD, which can manifest in dissociation. Lack of focus can also stem from feeling irrelevance, either that the subject matter is not important to their future or that some part of who they are is not represented at school.

Framing students鈥� inability to focus as the cause for delay in learning recovery, 鈥渋gnores the fact of why they’re maybe not motivated, why they’re not connected as they should be, why they don’t see themselves in the curriculum,鈥� he added. 鈥淲hy, when they did see themselves, they’re being taken out or not allowed to say or do things because they’re part of an oppressed group,鈥� referencing book bans, history challenges, and restrictions on diversity, equity and inclusion curricula and positions. 

Astor and Johanna Lacoe, research director with the California Policy Lab, point to several ways school leaders can address these behavioral concerns: stronger classroom management training for teachers and keeping counselor, nurse, psychologist and social worker roles filled. 

鈥淵oung people who are in the classroom and who are behind, frustrated and struggling are just so much more likely to check out,鈥� said Lacoe, a commissioner on San Francisco鈥檚 Juvenile Probation Commission. 鈥淔or a teacher with 33 kids, who has maybe not that much experience managing a classroom, to teach to the range of abilities that present themselves with no support, is what we’re currently asking teachers to do.鈥�

How schools handle disciplinary action after cyberbullying, violent behavior, and disruptions can greatly impact student perceptions of school. Lacoe pointed to several models that help students feel belonging after an incident such as in lieu of suspensions for low-level infractions, particularly as school leaders鈥� concerns about chronic absenteeism grow.  

In the , schools provide services such as healthcare, behavioral and housing support to children and families.

There are models at work where, 鈥測ou’re always telling a student that they belong here even in the time of this [adverse] behavior 鈥� that they can make right what happened through a process, inclusive of the people involved,鈥� Lacoe said. 鈥淵ou can figure out a way to resolve it that works for everyone and if possible, keeps the young person engaged at school.鈥�

The vast majority of school leaders surveyed in late May by the National Center for Education Statistics – over 80% – agree the pandemic鈥檚 impacts are still lingering, negatively impacting the behavioral and socioemotional development of their students. At least 90% of public schools reported offerings for students since 2021. 

Students, including Astor鈥檚 own undergraduates, are asking, 鈥溾�榃here do I fit in this world? How do I fit in society?鈥� … I think all of this impacts your ability to focus and your attention, including your motivation.鈥�

Every now and then, an elected official will suggest bringing in the National Guard to deal with violence that seems out of control.

A city council member in Washington suggested doing so in 2023 to . So did a Pennsylvania representative concerned about .

In February 2024, officials in Massachusetts be deployed to a more unexpected location 鈥� .

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Brockton High School has been struggling with . One school staffer said she was rushing to see a fight. Many teachers , leaving the school understaffed.

As a , I know Brockton鈥檚 situation is part of a who have been struggling to deal with perceived in since the pandemic.

A review of how the National Guard has been deployed to schools in the past shows the guard can provide service to schools in cases of exceptional need. Yet, doing so does not always end well.

How have schools used the National Guard before?

In 1957, the National Guard . While the governor claimed this was for safety, the National Guard effectively delayed desegregation of the school 鈥� as did the mobs of white individuals outside. Ironically, weeks later, the National Guard and the U.S. Army would enforce integration and the safety of the 鈥淟ittle Rock Nine鈥� on .

One of the most tragic cases of the National Guard in an educational setting came in 1970 at Kent State University. The to respond to protests over American involvement in the Vietnam War. The guardsmen fatally shot four students.

In 2012, then-Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat from California, to use the National Guard to provide school security in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting. The bill .

More recently, the National Guard in New Mexico鈥檚 K-12 schools during the quarantines and sickness of the pandemic. While the idea did not catch on nationally, teachers and school personnel in New Mexico generally reported positive experiences.

Can the National Guard address school discipline?

The includes responding to domestic emergencies. Members of the guard are part-time service members who maintain civilian lives. Some are students themselves in colleges and universities. Does this mission and training position the National Guard to respond to incidents of student misbehavior and school violence?

On the one hand, New Mexico鈥檚 pandemic experience shows the . Similarly, the guards鈥� eventual role in ensuring student safety in Arkansas demonstrates their potential to address exceptional cases in schools, such as racially motivated mob violence. And, of course, many schools have had military personnel teaching and mentoring through for years.

Those seeking to bring the National Guard to Brockton High School . They note that staffing shortages have contributed to behavior problems.

One school : 鈥淚 know that the first thought that comes to mind when you hear 鈥楴ational Guard鈥� is uniform and arms, and that鈥檚 not the case. They鈥檙e people like us. They鈥檙e educated. They鈥檙e trained, and we just need their assistance right now. 鈥� We need more staff to support our staff and help the students learn (and) have a safe environment.鈥�

Yet, there are reasons to question whether calls for the National Guard are the best way to address school misconduct and behavior. First, the National Guard is a temporary measure that does little to address the .

Research has shown that students , meaningful and sustained and . Such educative and supportive environments have been . National Guard members are not trained as educators or counselors and, as a temporary measure, would not remain in the school to establish durable relationships with students.

What is more, a military presence 鈥� particularly if uniformed or armed 鈥� may make students feel less welcome at school or escalate situations.

Schools have already seen an increase in militarization. For example, school police departments have gone so far as to acquire .

Research has found that school police make students more likely to and to be . Similarly, while a National Guard presence may address misbehavior temporarily, their presence could similarly result in students experiencing punitive or exclusionary responses to behavior.

Students deserve a solution other than the guard

School violence and disruptions are serious problems . Unfortunately, schools and educators have increasingly to be dealt with through suspensions and police involvement.

A number of people 鈥� from the NAACP to the local mayor and other members of the school board 鈥� Brockton鈥檚 request for the National Guard. Governor Maura Healey has said she will to the school.

However, the case of Brockton High School points to real needs. Educators there, like in other schools nationally, are and resources.

Many schools need more teachers and staff. Students need access to mentors and counselors. With these resources, schools can better ensure educators are able to do their jobs without military intervention.

This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

Ten percent. That鈥檚 the portion of K-12 teachers in the United States who say they鈥檝e been physically attacked by a student, a .

Various have what has been described as a 鈥溾�� since students returned from remote learning to in-person instruction. The purported surge in student misconduct is part of an upward trend in student assaults on teachers. The percentage of teachers who have been attacked by students has over the past decade, federal data shows.

As school districts across the country report critical in teaching staff, some people worry that the attacks on teachers . Such concerns are well founded.

In my , I learned from teachers firsthand that these assaults and .

As I point out in my book 鈥�,鈥� attacks are leaving teachers traumatized. In some cases, educators told me they started illegally carrying guns to school after they were attacked.

Teachers also told me they feel as if principals don鈥檛 have their backs. In fact, several teachers who have been attacked by students expressed .

Why would a principal not support a teacher for reporting being attacked? Teachers informed me the principals were worried about their schools getting a bad reputation, which could make it harder to recruit new teachers and students. At least one school in my study could not recruit substitute teachers because the school had a reputation for violence between students and staff.

When teachers reported to principals they had been victimized by students, the principals would minimize their concerns, according to the teachers. The principals would also shift the focus to what the teacher did or didn鈥檛 do leading up to the attack.

Call for tougher laws

Over the past decade, teachers have urged policymakers to create legislation that addresses violent student behavior. Teachers have about how being attacked by students hampered their ability to teach effectively.

Lawmakers have tried to come up with tougher laws to deter violence against teachers. However, many bills fail because of concerns that the bills would erode students鈥� right to due process. In turn, as I found in my book, many teachers feel powerless because violent students are being allowed to stay in their classes.

For example, in Connecticut, would have allowed teachers to have students removed from their classroom if those students engage in violent acts. It would have also allowed teachers to set the standards for the student鈥檚 return to the classroom.

Although this proposal received substantial support in the Connecticut House and Senate, then-Gov. Dannel Malloy , arguing that it .

The in Minnesota would have compelled public schools to expel students who assaulted teachers. But the legislation because of fierce opposition from 鈥� a nonprofit organization that represents educators. This particular organization wanted to that seek to keep students in school to make amends rather than have students be suspended or expelled.

Thus, the challenge for policymakers and administrators is to find a way to protect teachers without jeopardizing students鈥� right to due process. The well-being and stability of America鈥檚 teaching force depends on finding the right balance.

Charles Bell is an assistant professor of criminal justice sciences at Illinois State University.

This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license.

It鈥檚 a question that has been asked in Columbine, Newtown, Parkland, and elsewhere. And as the number of tragic episodes has climbed in recent decades, it has increasingly drawn the attention of experts studying the effects of trauma on students鈥� wellbeing. Spanning a variety of settings and drawing from the insights of diverse academic disciplines, their work points to substantial emotional damage trailing students who live through school shootings. The hopes of these children 鈥� measured in academic, professional, and psychological terms 鈥� are meaningfully diminished, along with the health of their families.

鈥淎 growing body of research finds that the costs of gun violence in American schools extend beyond the death toll,鈥� said Maya Rossin-Slater, a professor of health policy at the Stanford University School of Medicine who has carefully observed the aftermath of previous Texas shootings. 鈥淭he hundreds of thousands of children and educators who experience and survive these tragedies are likely to carry scars for years and decades to come.鈥�

Rossin-Slater is the co-author of looking at the survivors of 33 school shootings in Texas between 1995 and 2016, including those with or without fatalities. Using administrative data from the Texas Education Agency, and measuring the academic participation of individual survivors against students from a control group of demographically similar schools, the research team detected obvious short-term consequences from shootings: Affected students were more likely to be absent and chronically absent, and over 100 percent more likely to repeat a grade (though this probability rose from a relatively low baseline).

The authors next examined college enrollment and workforce records of students at eight Texas high schools that saw shootings between 1998 and 2006, comparing the trends of students enrolled both before and during the shootings against same-age students at control schools. Tenth and eleventh graders who lived through shootings became 3.7 percent less likely to graduate, 9.5 percent less likely to enroll in college, and 15.3 percent less likely to obtain a bachelor鈥檚 degree. Freshmen, sophomores, and juniors who experienced shootings were more likely to be unemployed between ages 24 and 26; those working by that age earned, on average, $2,350 less in annual wages than their peers, which implies a $115,000 reduction in lifetime earnings.

Evidence of those long-term ramifications can also be found in other recent studies. A analyzed the impact of violence on a broader sample of individuals who were between the ages of 11 and 17 when a school shooting occurred in their home county. Tracking responses to the CDC鈥檚 Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System (a nationwide survey querying the health of Americans in their 20s and early 30s) the authors found that girls who lived in the vicinity of school shootings tended to report a host of risky behaviors in adulthood, from increased drinking to driving without a seatbelt.

Boys also demonstrated clear effects 鈥� including a substantial uptick in smoking and the number of days they described themselves as receiving insufficient rest 鈥� and were generally less likely to say they were in excellent or very good health. Similar to the findings of the Texas paper, the authors found that girls in counties where school shootings occurred were less likely to be employed in early adulthood, while boys later earned less than their peers from other counties. Both boys and girls were less likely to be obese in later life, and more likely to be underweight. 

More evidence emerges from a study of the 2011 terrorist attack at Ut酶ya, Norway, the deadliest mass killing perpretrated by a single individual in modern history. at a summer camp, the majority under the age of 20; one poll showed that one in four of the country鈥檚 residents knew someone touched by the event.

The study, conducted by a team of mostly Norwegian researchers, used academic and medical records to pair children who lived through the attack with similarly aged peers who attended different schools, then divided their findings according to different age groupings. In all, they found that relatively young survivors (either 14 or 15 years old) scored vastly lower on standardized tests, while older survivors (between the ages of 15 and 18) were 20 percentage points less likely to complete high school. Relative to the average for the control group, exposed children of all ages made 60 percent more medical visits and received psychiatric diagnoses nearly five times more frequently in the period immediately following the killings.

Families of the survivors weren鈥檛 spared. Siblings also scored lower on state tests by roughly .2 standard deviations (a commonly used measurement illustrating the difference in any population from the statistical mean); a drop of that magnitude is much larger than most effects in education research. Parents were much more likely to visit a doctor, receive a mental health diagnosis, and take sick leave from work (28 percent more likely, in the case of mothers) after the Ut酶ya attack.

Study co-author Prashant Bharadwaj 鈥� a professor of economics at the University of California, San Diego 鈥� wrote in an email that the 鈥渂ig lesson鈥� to be taken from the study was that direct exposure to mass killings can cause enormous ripples even in a Scandinavian setting, where social policy and access to free health care is more generous than in the United States. 

鈥淣orway is a setting with incredible social safety nets: state-provided medical care, high-quality medical care, generous family leave policies, sickness leave, etc.,鈥� Bharadwaj said. 鈥淓ven within this context, the fact that we find large impacts on mental health for children and sickness absences from work for mothers suggests that in contexts like the U.S., where access to medical care and quality of social safety nets are weaker, the impacts can be much more severe.鈥� 

The medical toll on American children is on display in another study conducted by Stanford鈥檚 Rossin-Slater, who measured the impact of 44 school shootings between January 2008 and April 2013. Using information from the IQVIA Xponent panel, which tracks practitioner-level data on medical prescriptions, Rossin-Slater and her colleagues discovered a startling phenomenon: The monthly number of antidepressant medications prescribed to people aged 20 and under increased by over one-fifth in counties that saw school shootings with at least one fatality. The effect continued even three years after the murders occurred. 

Some variety did exist in the effects, however 鈥� the spike in antidepressant use was somewhat smaller in areas with higher concentrations of psychologists and social workers, who can offer behavioral treatment outside pharmacological intervention. Rossin-Slater said that this caveat made a case for providing more mental health resources to communities that lack them.

鈥淎s we mourn the horrific losses of children and teachers in Uvalde and in many other towns across America, we must ensure that our society provides lasting support and resources to the many survivors who are likely to continue to suffer. This need is especially critical in rural and lower-income areas, such as Uvalde, Texas, which tend to have limited access to mental health professionals and other supports.鈥�

鈥淭hreats against public servants are not only illegal, they run counter to our nation鈥檚 core values,鈥� Garland wrote in a media release Monday. 鈥淭hose who dedicate their time and energy to ensuring that our children receive a proper education in a safe environment deserve to be able to do their work without fear for their safety.鈥�

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The move comes less than a week after the 90,000-member National School Boards Association urged the Biden administration to act swiftly to protect public school leaders who face 鈥渁n immediate threat鈥� of violence as school board meetings nationwide grow increasingly volatile. The group cited more than 20 instances of threats, harassment and intimidation during board meetings in recent months amid tension over mask mandates and classroom instruction on critical race theory. The school board group referred to the violent threats as 鈥渄omestic terrorism.鈥�

In , Garland called on the federal agencies to meet with local law enforcement in the next month to create a plan to combat the 鈥渄isturbing spike.鈥� The Justice Department also announced plans to create a new task force focused on prosecuting people who threaten school leaders. The task force will include the FBI and the Justice Department鈥檚 criminal, security and civil rights divisions.

Officials also said they would create training resources that help school boards and administrators understand behaviors that constitute threats, how to report dangerous conduct to police and how to preserve relevant evidence.

Chip Slavin, the school board group鈥檚 interim executive director, said in a media release that the Justice Department鈥檚 response sent 鈥渁 strong message to individuals with violent intent who are focused on causing chaos, disrupting our public schools and driving wedges between school boards and the parents, students and communities they serve.鈥�

In one recent incident, police arrested an Illinois man for allegedly hitting a school official as he was being escorted out of a board meeting and, in another, an Ohio school board member received a letter in the mail warning threatening that she would 鈥減ay dearly鈥� for requiring students to wear masks on campus. While some speakers have used board meetings to spread conspiracy theories and hate speech, other critics who frequently clash with their school boards to the national association鈥檚 assertion that their actions constitute 鈥渄omestic terrorism.鈥� Among them is activist and former Wall Street Journal reporter Asra Nomani, who tweeted that the school board group should apologize to parents.

Conservative lawmakers and activists, including Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, were quick to accuse officials of trampling on the free speech rights of parents who speak up at school board meetings. On Twitter, the Biden administration of using 鈥渇ederal law enforcement to punish dissent from the ruling class.鈥�

Read the Justice Department memo here:

Chris Riback: Larry, thank you for coming by the ELN Studio.

Lawrence Aber:聽It’s a pleasure to be here, Chris.

Chris Riback:聽So throughout your career, you have focused much of your research, maybe all of your research, on the social, emotional, motivational and behavioral development of high-risk children in youth. What drew you there?

Lawrence Aber:聽Many researchers’ research is a little bit autobiography, so I grew up in tough neighborhoods. My family had some tough scrapes and things like that, so I probably came by it naturally in that way. I’m the oldest of six kids, and my youngest brother, who’s 15 years younger than me, I used to get up and give him his six o’clock in the morning feeding because my mom was pooped, and so I might have come by it that way. Almost everybody is fascinated by human development. For some reason I got lucky enough that I could make that my living.

Chris Riback:聽Is poverty the most confounding societal challenge for child development?

Lawrence Aber:聽I think it’s one of two. The elevator speech in my career is I’ve done two things my entire career. I’ve studied the effects of poverty and violence on children’s development, poverty and violence at different levels of what we call the human ecology. Poverty, family poverty, intimate family violence, community poverty, how poor your neighborhood is, community violence, state level poverty, state level violence, so at all those levels, it’s poverty and violence that are the two most toxic things in kids’ development.

Chris Riback:聽And is that because there is correlation between the two or because they’re so individually impactful?

Lawrence Aber:聽They’re modestly correlated, but it’s largely because they’re individually impactful. They can be in combination especially impactful. There are lots of kids who are exposed to poverty that are not exposed to violence, lots of kids exposed to violence and not poverty, and they actually affect two different parts of the developing organism. So poverty is associated with deprivation and violence is associated with threat, and so deprivation and threat are both bad for developing human beings, but they’re bad in different ways.

Chris Riback:聽Let’s talk about a little bit about your own evolution. It feels to me in looking at your career that you may have focused initially a little bit more on domestic issues, but lately much more in the international sphere.

Lawrence Aber:聽Absolutely. The first 30 years of my work life, I focused primarily and almost exclusively in the United States. I did a little work on kids in war. If you’re interested in the effects of poverty and violence on kids and you want to make a difference in that, in the United States there’s plenty of work, but there’s even more work overseas.

Chris Riback:聽In Ghana, in Syria, in Lebanon, and the places where you’ve been.

Lawrence Aber:聽In the Congo, in South Africa, in Niger and Sierra Leone, yes, so I work primarily now in sub-Saharan Africa and in the Middle East and North Africa.

Chris Riback:聽Is there a universality? I mean, you’re talking about places that feel worlds apart, or is it apples and oranges? It’s like you’re not even talking about the same inputs.

Lawrence Aber: The deep structure of development I think is very similar across human beings. The surface features of it, the specific instantiation or expression of it varies by culture, but the deep structure is quite similar across cultures.

Chris Riback:聽I spoke earlier with Sarah Smith from the International Rescue Committee. You’re involved in the program, the 100&Change, in bringing Sesame Street to the Middle East. How is that effort?

Lawrence Aber:聽Well, it’s a remarkable effort. I’ve been lucky enough to be working with IRC since about 2010, so they are the first group I worked seriously with after I made the turn from domestic to international work. The International Rescue Committee and Sesame Street combined to propose to create kind of an early childhood system in Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon. There’s going to be home visiting programs on the ground and early childhood centers on the ground for young kids and preschool kids, and there’s going to be Sesame Street broadcasting educational television for kids, specifically targeted to Syrian refugee kids and families in the host communities, and we’re in the throes of getting it up and going.

Chris Riback:聽It’s got to be exciting work.

Lawrence Aber: Exciting, humbling, scary. With those kind of resources, you want to do the very best job you can.

Chris Riback: I’m sure you do. To close out, I was looking at the NYU Steinhardt website where you belong, and I was really taken by the mission, to prepare students to understand and intervene in human development across contexts and cultures. In listening to you today and in reading about you, that really seems to be what drives you.

Lawrence Aber:聽I think so. I just keep getting impressed by the varieties of human experience. I’m hungry to understand and experience new cultures and new ways, and I think as we become a more global world, we have to develop glocal, combined global and local solutions to the most important problems. I can’t think of a more important issue than how to prepare the next generation to cope with this crazy world.

Chris Riback:聽I couldn’t agree more, and it’s great that folks like you are doing it. Thank you.

Lawrence Aber:聽I’m lucky that I’m joined by many colleagues. It’s a team sport.

Chris Riback:聽Thank you for coming to the ELN Studio.

Lawrence Aber:聽My pleasure.

Chris Riback:聽Ken, welcome to the ELN studio.

Ken Dodge:聽Good morning.

Chris Riback: Thanks for coming by.

Ken Dodge:聽Yes, thank you.

Chris Riback: Congratulations on the biennial. How’s it going so far?

Ken Dodge: It’s going very well. We have over 6,000 people here and there’s a lot of sessions going on, so a lot of excitement.

Chris Riback: The theme this year is international, interdisciplinary and relevant. Connect that for me to early childhood development.

Ken Dodge: The Society’s very interested in child development and developmental science, and then science to action, how that could have an impact. Interdisciplinary is a natural because child development involved many disciplines. Psychology, sociology, psychiatry, pediatrics, economics, you name it. International because we’re in a global society, and then relevance because we’re trying to bring that basic scientific knowledge to bear on practice, policy and public attention.

Chris Riback: Isn’t that such an important component of the research, to make it practical and actionable, make it tangible for parents, for practitioners?

Ken Dodge: Absolutely important. One of the things we’ve learned, the hard way, but learned over time, is that it used to be that academic researchers thought that the direction of communication was one-way, where we academics would learn something and then we would lay it upon the public. We’ve learned that the public needs to be involved from the very beginning so they could tell us what to research, tell us what the problems are, tell us what the perspectives are. We’ve really established two-way partnerships.

Chris Riback: Also, I would assume the translational process for any researcher to see the research, see the insights, in action and have them applied in a house, in a school, in a community, has got to make a big difference.

Ken Dodge: It makes a big difference. Having that two-way communication right from the beginning will help the interventions that we develop be relevant, be able to be disseminated, be able to have an impact. In my own career, I’ve developed interventions early on that seemed wonderful but could never be implemented in a practical and a community setting. So I’ve learned right from the very beginning to be thinking about interventions that could be disseminated.

Chris Riback: Let’s talk about your research. First of all, I read 500 scientific articles, 90,000 or more than that citations. Do you charge royalties?

Ken Dodge: No.

Chris Riback: Because there’s a side business. Once-

Ken Dodge: Nobody’s getting wealthy here.

Chris Riback: Well, once we’re done with this, I think there’s a royalty business that you’re missing out on with 90,000 citations.

Ken Dodge: Yeah, yeah.

Chris Riback: The heart of your research, or at least one area, you’ve been instrumental in understanding the development and prevention of aggressive and violent behaviors.

Ken Dodge: Right.

Chris Riback: I mean, I know as a layperson what that means, but tell me kind of clinically, in language that I can understand, what that means and-

Ken Dodge: Yes. Very briefly, when I was young, growing up on the South Side of Chicago, I saw a lot of kids getting into trouble, and became interested in how to prevent them from becoming juvenile delinquents. So I did a lot of research on how it is that kids come to be aggressive, and did some interventions. But then over time I got frustrated that that was even too late. One of the early factors leading some children to come to be delinquents was their early-life experiences in disruptive homes, being the victims of child abuse, being the victims of a lot of stressful environments, so I became very interested in preventing child abuse as a way to prevent children from growing up to be aggressive and violent themselves. So for the last 15 years or so, my interests have really been on prevention of child abuse.

Chris Riback: You also developed a framework for intervening early to prevent the costly consequences of violence for children and their communities. Describe that framework.

Ken Dodge: One of the things that psychologists have done is to develop interventions, but if we apply them to only 50 children in a community, we’re not really having an impact on the community. So around 2000, I became very interested in public health, in approaches to having population impact. We searched for a while for the silver bullet intervention, and there is not one. One of the things we’ve learned is that children come to be aggressive, and parents come to be abusive, in many different ways.

Chris Riback: So much can go into.

Ken Dodge: So much.

Chris Riback:聽Talk about interdisciplinary. So many impacts.

Ken Dodge: That’s right.

Chris Riback:聽What is Durham Connects, and how important is that to you?

Ken Dodge:聽It’s very important to me right now. Durham Connects started in Durham, North Carolina, with this idea of, how could we have a public health impact? We learned and noticed around the year 2000 that Durham, North Carolina, had a very high child abuse rate, especially in the first couple of years of life. It was higher than the state of North Carolina average, which was higher than the national average. Had to do with poverty, had to do with a lot of drug use and a lot of violence in the community.

Ken Dodge: So we embarked on a 20-year period to try to figure out want to do about it. We made a lot of attempts, a lot of failures I could tell you about, but that’s the way things go. We were very fortunate to have long-term financial funding from the Duke Endowment, a fabulous organization, and they invested in us.

Ken Dodge: Ultimately, we arrived on this idea of reaching every family at birth, in the hospital where they give birth, and then in their homes several weeks after. Reach out to them, congratulate them on the birth, but then try to understand what their needs are. We use nurses. They’re wonderful. What we learned is that every mother and father loves a nurse coming into their home to help them. So the nurse does that in several hours, gets to know the family, and tries to understand what their needs are. Then we try to bring community resources to meet their needs.

Chris Riback: Ken, to close out, because I want to let you get back to this show you’re running-

Ken Dodge: Sure.

Chris Riback:聽There’s 6,000 people waiting for you, you know. Big picture, I looked at the Center for Child and Family Policy, which you helped start. One part of it that caught my eye is the focus the Center puts on engaging with policymakers.

Ken Dodge:聽Yes.

Chris Riback: What’s your view of where our policymakers are in terms of understanding and supporting the important ideals behind early childhood development?

Ken Dodge:聽Surveys show that overwhelmingly, more than three quarters of American public favors greater investments in early childhood. They get the message. So if we’re scientifically evidence-based and thinking about economic efficiency, I have found policymakers really to be embracing what we’re doing. Durham Connects program, we now call Family Connects as we disseminate it nationally, and we’re in three dozen communities across the country that are interested, so policymakers are right on board.

Chris Riback:聽That’s great to hear. Well, thank you. Thank you for your work, and thank you for stopping by the ELN studio.

Ken Dodge: Thank you for doing this. Appreciate you being here.