Lessons Learned From School Shootings Perspectives from the United States of America

This brief investigates school shootings and their impact on individual, community, and societal levels. It includes professional and personal perspectives from individuals directly involved in and impacted by school shootings. These novel perspectives will help inform best practices necessary to strengthen school safety measures, as well as prevention and response efforts. This brief will serve as helpful guide to mental health professionals, school administrators, psychology students and educators, law enforcement, and threat management and crisis response teams, aiding in better understanding of the many factors surrounding school shootings.

1. School Shootings: an overview.- 2. Perpetrators and victims of school shootings.- 3. Best practices for school safety to prevent school shootings.- 4. Legal implications.- 5. Future directions.

Dr. Scott Poland, Ed.D is a licensed psychologist with many years of school experience and nationally recognized expert on school crisis, youth violence, suicide intervention, school safety, threat assessment, and the delivery of psychological services in schools. He is an accomplished author on the subject matter of crisis intervention and has lead over 1,000 workshops worldwide. Further, he has acted as the lead to numerous crisis teams following school shootings and suicides. In addition to his dedicated efforts in the community, Dr. Poland is a psychology professor at the Center for Psychological Studies and the Director of the Suicide and Violence Prevention Office at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Dr. Sara Ferguson, Psy.D is the current post-doctoral resident at the Suicide and Violence Prevention Office at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Dr. Ferguson earned her doctorate in Clinical Psychology program with a specialization in Forensic Psychology at Nova Southeastern University. Dr. Ferguson’s clinical interests include suicide and violence prevention and contemporary relational psychotherapy in the areas of complex trauma, serious mental illness, and autism spectrum disorder. Dr. Ferguson’s research interests are primarily in the forensic domain, including suicide and violence prevention, juvenile offending, and neuropsychology of crime. She recently co-authored a SpringerBrief on juvenile homicide titled, “A Closer Look at Juvenile Homicide: Kids Who Kill.”