Thirteen years ago today, at right about this time I received a cell phone call from an unfamiliar number. It was a "crisis management" group that I'd occasionally worked with over the previous 20 years. They were asking my availability to respond immediately to a situation "on the east coast" involving "multiple casualties including children" They had already reserved a ticket in my name on a flight leaving in 90 minutes. In such calls, initial details are intentionally vague unless the assignment is accepted, and I had to decline. (Graduation was the next day and I was on the platform committee. Important stuff you know.) But in minutes my smart phone quickly served up a horrible back story, the slaughter of children and their teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School. And although, I'd declined the assignment I was done grading papers for the day. Alone with my thoughts I sat and pondered the talking heads on cable TV. And common themes emerged: The wide sweeping expression of "thoughts and prayers." And the simple questions of, "How could this happen? And how can we stop this madness?"
How indeed?
Three days later, on December 17, I posted this compound question on a discussion list of social work educators:
"How do you intend to teach around the Newtown /Sandy Hook School shooting incident?" "Do you talk about such current events in class? And do you encourage your students to think about and write about such issues?" Is the Newtown slaughter to be taught or recognized as an isolated incident or as just "a spike" in a lineage of incidents? How as social work educators have we taught around such issue in the past? Does this topic perhaps fit best in the HBSE sequence? If so, does it go in micro or macro? What about Practice classes? Policy? Ethics? Human Diversity & Social Justice? Intro?
I also raised the question that if we are to be culturally sensitive, what do we teach about our nations "gun culture?" Is gun ownership in general, an issue for us to even address? Or must we be more specific: childhood safety: ease of access to firearms & parenteral accountability, concealed carry, open carry, high capacity clips magazines and gun locks? Or do we even raise these issues in class? How will you address this broad topic? And if you choose not to do so, why?"
Now, at the time there were just over 1500 different e-mail addresses linked to the BPD list serve.
And over the next week, twenty-eight individuals responded to this invitation, Seventeen responded "to all", 11 responded only to me. Some of those who "responded to all" also responded to me with additional and often more personal narrative. As I had offered to compile and share the commentary I received, I did so, shortly after new years of 2013. There had been no further mention of gun violence or school shootings on the list. In fairness, I guess folks have been on winter break.
But over the next four weeks, there would be seven additional school shootings in the US. Ten individuals were wounded and four other had been killed. Here is a list of JUST the school shootings in the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States
So with today's posting, I am hoping to provoke and continue this dialog: one that I personally believe is essential for us to engage in, not only as educators but as professional social workers, citizens, parents, aunts and uncles and neighbors.
Where does such content fit? The options seem endless here: mental illness, diagnosis, screening, treatment, civil liberties, confidentiality, crisis intervention services, grief counseling, burn-out, "critical incident debriefing," the criminal codes, mental health codes, incarceration of the mentally ill, "mental health reform" and deinstitutionalization (or reinstitutionalization), Tarrasoff and our "Duty to Warn" death notifications, forensics, ... And what about constitutional provisions like the second amendment to our constitution, fear dread, self-care, and compassion fatigue. Political action, public education advocacy. And if it's to be advocacy, advocacy for what and for who? Where does the question of our own personal safety and that of our students and graduates fit into this formula?
To be clear, over the past eight years since Sandy Hook, we've largely seen "concealed carry" laws weakened by the elimination of both background checks and requisite safety training. We've seen an expansion of "open carry," and "2nd amendment protections" that prohibit even the preventative inquiry by police as to why someone might be carrying even multiple semi-automatic assault style weapons and handguns with extra magazines into shopping district, public playground or church. (Better armed than my father was when he fought across the black sands of Iwo Jima in World War II.)
And now we have heavily armed protesters marching in our streets as politicians promote insurrection and condone violence. YES, this inquiry is a provocation too. What will YOU do? And wahat might WE do TOGETHER?
Repeating myself, If there is to be an intelligent dialog about THESE issues, what will be our role - as educators and as social workers-in this discussion. Perhaps more importantly, what will be YOUR role in this discussion?
Gary
Gary E. Bachman MSSW, Professor Emeritus at Park University - Parkville Missouri
#SocialWelfarePolicyandPolicyPractice------------------------------
Gary Bachman
Emeritus Professor
Park University
Overland Park KS
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