The American Counseling Association Foundation is pleased to support professionalism and education on ACA's website. It's a typical day in a high school classroom. Students are going about their usual agendas - working on geometry homework, reading plays in English class, dabbling in chemistry. Suddenly, it happens.
Shots ring out.
The students are suddenly aware their school is under siege. This is an ongoing process. According to Davidson, many school districts are using outdated crisis response plans that simply deal with the aftermath of a tragic event rather than building measures into their plans that call for proactive steps to deal with the mental well-being of students. We have not taken indicators seriously in many cases because many times we have preconceived notions of who is at risk. It's clear we've overlooked emotional intelligence in our schools and the impact of bullying and sexual harassment.