Families who are knowledgeable about students' psychological problems or behavioral difficulties can inform the school administration and guidance service when necessary, which can contribute to the early assessment of possible risks and taking appropriate precautions.
In this process, where the balance between protecting the child's privacy and ensuring the safety of other students in the school environment is also important, cooperation between the family, school administration and mental health experts comes to the fore.
Education specialist Banu Yapıcı and psychiatrist Dr. Orçun Ortaköylü talked to the AA correspondent about how early recognition of students' behaviors that may pose a risk of harming themselves or others, families contacting the school administration and guidance service when necessary, and timely assessment of risks can contribute to the prevention of possible violent incidents.
Psychiatrist Ortaköylü explained that just because a student has a psychological problem does not mean that this factor alone will lead him to resort to violence, but it is very difficult to say that the person who resorts to violence has a normal psychology.
Pointing out that some events, traumas, peer bullying or family problems that the child has been exposed to for a long time may lead to a tendency to violence, Ortaköylü said that "2 or 3 out of 100 children with psychological problems may be perpetrators of violence" and when looking at those who perpetrate violence, "it can be determined that almost all of them have some psychological problems, whether they are at the level of a disease or not."
Pointing to scientific research conducted in the USA, which is considered the country where school raids occur most frequently, Ortaköylü pointed out that according to these studies, "2 out of every 3 attackers tell their people about the violent incident they planned."
Early recognition of violent tendencies is critical in preventing incidents.
Stating that it would be a good step for the parent who knows that his child has a serious psychological problem to share this situation with the school administration or guidance service, Ortaköylü emphasized the importance of reporting these signals, which close friends can also perceive, to the school administration and guidance service, taking care not to stigmatize the student.
Ortaköylü said, "It is very important for teachers to observe sudden behavioral changes, threats, outbursts of anger or violent discourses in the student in order to notice a possible incident in advance. Noticing these situations plays a critical role in preventing more than half of the possible incidents." he said.
Psychological problem alone is not an indicator of violent tendencies
Education expert Banu Yapıcı also pointed out that parents' failure to share with the school administration serious threatening behaviors or situations that may pose a security risk that they observe in their children is an important factor that directly weakens the early intervention capacity of educational institutions.
Stating that the main problem in terms of educational management is the interruption of the information flow between the family and the school, Yapıcı said:
"When serious aggressive behaviors that occur in the student's life outside of school, threats against certain people, or preparations to harm people are not known by the school, it becomes difficult to evaluate the student's needs and possible security risks in a holistic manner. This situation may prevent the timely initiation of many preventive practices, from planning guidance services to individualized support processes, but I would especially like to emphasize that experiencing psychological problems alone is not an indicator of a tendency to violence. The main element that educational institutions should evaluate is not the diagnosis of the student, but the observable threat behaviors, the context of these behaviors, and the concrete security risks that may arise."
Family and school collaboration is a critical mechanism in preventive intervention.
Stating that the responsibility of families is not to share all information about their children's private life with the school, Yapıcı said, "In critical situations that directly concern the safety of the family, the child or others, it should be evaluated as conveying information in a timely manner that will support the school's preventive intervention mechanisms. One of the most critical problems in school security is not only the existence of a risk, but also the fact that the information about that risk does not reach the people who can intervene in a timely manner." he said.
Stating that recurring threats directed at specific people, planning for an act of violence, signs of preparation, open expression of intent to cause harm, and the increasing concreteness of threatening behavior require a different evaluation process, Yapıcı said:
"The basis of this approach is not to categorize the student according to his personal characteristics or psychological state, but to consider concrete behaviors, the seriousness of threats, the conditions of the student and the existing protective factors as a whole. The task of teachers is not to make a clinical evaluation or to decide whether a student will use violence in the future. The teacher should notice the behavior that creates security concerns, report it objectively and contribute to the relevant units initiating the evaluation process. For this reason, individual observations in schools need to be associated with reliable reporting channels, guidance services and, when necessary, expert support."
Referring to the responsibility of parents in concrete situations that affect the child's best interest and school safety, Yapıcı pointed out that it is an important parental responsibility for families to cooperate with the school if they are aware of concrete and serious behaviors that suggest that their children are at risk of harming themselves or others.
Referring to the balance between the privacy of the child with psychological problems and school security, Yapıcı made the following evaluations:
"The balance between the child's privacy and school security should not be established by disclosing all the student's psychological information, but by sharing the information necessary for security within a limited, measured and authorized framework. Our basic approach in this regard is to manage the serious and concrete security risks that may arise in the educational environment while protecting the privacy of the student's private life, because the right to privacy and the right to safe education are two basic principles that are not mutually exclusive, but should be protected together. For example, a student receiving psychological support does not require the school administration to have access to the student's entire medical history, but a serious threat or harm to a specific person. "If there is a security situation that requires preparation or urgent intervention, it is important that the relevant information is evaluated by authorized persons within legal limits so that the school can take the necessary measures."
Yapıcı stated that the Ministry of National Education's guidance services and regulations on school security provide an important framework in terms of practices in Türkiye, and added, "For this reason, I do not see the issue only as a need for new regulations. Measuring the effectiveness of existing practices, increasing school-based intervention capacity, supporting staff with in-service training and standardizing inter-institutional guidance processes are also of great importance." he said.
Pointing out that possible risks of violence can be detected in advance and incidents can be prevented with the cooperation of the family, school, guidance service and experts, Yapıcı emphasized that structured cooperation between the family, school administration, guidance service and relevant experts can make it possible to detect some risks of violence early and reduce them with the necessary measures.
