Ethical and Legal Issues in School Counseling
Chapter 3
Standard 2 Benchmark 3
Standard 7 Benchmark 10
à School violence-legal and ethical issue for counselors
à Counselors obligated to make efforts to prevent school violence
à Schools obligated to prevent school violence
à How to find assessment tools to screen with potential for violence
à Counselors-continue training, gaining skills in assessment and response of violence
à Team with other school and community; early identification and intervention
à School counselors key in violence reduction
à Learn risk factors
à Learn intervention strategies
à Implement Violence prevention program
à Keep up to date on school violence court cases
à Threat of potential violence must be taken as serious
à Suicidal Ideation and violent behavior connected
à Consider every threat of suicide a serious one
à Courts expect counselors to be knowledgeable about suicide and violent behavior
à School counselors key in assessing threats of suicide and violence
à Threat assessment: determining if language and context=intent to harm
à Students history of violence becomes part of assessment
à Risk Factor: any factor that lend itself to the likelihood for harm to others
à More factors=greater propensity for violence
à Common that prior to act of violence, someone was aware the plan
à Common that prior to violence, behavior of student questioned
à In 75 % of shootings, perp was encountering life changing events
à Some were alienated from mainstream
à Some were rejected by love interest
à 2/3 were bullied, threatened, beat up, etc.
à ½ were seeking revenge
à Child abuse, Sexual Abuse, emotional abuse-increase risk factors for violence
à Common for violent student to have psych diagnosis
à Cruelty to animals is an indicator of potential for violence
à Great interest in violence is also an indicator
à School environment can contribute to risk
à Most effective violence prevention programs address school climate as well as risk factors
à Effective programs: Quality Implementation plus intervention
à US Health & Human Services found ½ violence prevention programs are ineffective
à Effective programs include: skills training, behavior monitoring and reinforcement, bullying prevention programs,
à Ineffective: peer programs
à Early identification and intervention are key to success
à Threats-counselor needs to gather info on student to make determination regarding potential for danger
à Early intervention is key even when threat is minimal
à Assessing students motivation for threatening violence is important
à Corroboration is essential when gathering info for threat assessment
à Protocols need to be in place for students threatening violence
à School and Community resources need to be provided to student
à Counselors must establish and environment that fosters caring, and students must be made aware of this
à Students must know they are held accountable for their actions