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Washington’s top educator faces realities of school shootings

Chris Reykdal, Washington's Superintendent for Public Instruction, spoke about the model for state education funding.
Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal. (Photo: KING)

“It literally turns out to be one psychologist for every 150 high schools in this state."

Chris Reykdal, Washington’s Superintendent for Public Instruction, spoke about the model for state education funding.

“It’s an all of the above issue. We have a strong need to understand the mental health needs of our students and to get them support and services," said Reykdal.

He says that burden often falls on school counselors.

Reykdal, once a high school teacher himself and former state legislator, has been on the job as SPI for a year and has plenty to say about the struggle students face watching violence on TV and on video games, along with easy access to unsecured guns in many homes.

“And the untold conversation happening is most of these never turn into homicides, like this and mass shootings. But we think we are losing about two children every week in this state – teenagers – to suicide.”

In hindsight, the people who end up as mass shooters in schools appear as no surprise. Everybody, it seems, can point to the “warning signs.” Threatening remarks, social media posts. But the reality of spotting shooters before they pull the trigger is far more difficult, as many kids say all kinds of things, and always have and have never shot anybody. Where is the line?

“It’s really, really complex,” said Steve Strachan, Executive Director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, who once served as a school resource officer. Strachan says schools and law enforcement quickly run into issues of privacy and civil liberties.

The chiefs’ association has a full-time expert available to work with school districts to prevent and manage violence on campus. He says a key issue is how to identify and get kids at risk into treatment.

And that, says Reykdal, is a problem, as under state law kids can opt out of treatment as 14-year-olds.

“The default is becoming: When you see something, say something,” said Reykdal, as campus shootings have become more and more common in the wake of Columbine in 1999.

But he notes students are in school around seven hours a day. What about the other 17 hours in a day when they’re at home and spending time on social media? Can families become more engaged at home?

“There are warning signs in many of these cases where peer to peer would be a really powerful intervention,” Reykdal says, referring to fellow students and peers who might see something and say something.

“There are folks trying to make some progress on that. There are folks trying to get legislation for peer-to-peer software systems where kids can report anonymously," said Reykdal. "All if it becomes part of the solution and all of it about making different choices on resources. This is what we’re trying to push lawmakers to think about.”

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