These kids, and others around them, could benefit from some type of early intervention. Earlier this summer a sixth-grader was arrested and held in jail awaiting his trial for threatening to shoot teachers and classmates in Georgia. Previous school shootings had increased the anxiety of parents, students and teachers and over half of the 440 students at the elementary school stayed home. The boy was a troublemaker at school. Days earlier, he beat up another student on the playground and was accused of hitting another student in the face with a jar of mayonnaise in the lunchroom.
Kids can get guns.
Even though the recent shootings across the U.S. have ignited a media frenzy, statistics show that juvenile homicides have declined. Certainly the members of the several small communities that have endured the recent tragedies know something is wrong. Figley, whose Green Cross Project certifies traumatologists to work with communities after disasters and events such as the recent shootings, says everyone in the community must admit they have been affected. Once a tragedy happens, the Green Cross goes to work assisting communities in rebuilding. He suggests that communities look to others who have suffered similar events.