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Spurred by the recent shootings in Parkland, WalkUpNotOut calls for students to engage their marginalized peers, and directly help create a more accepting school environment. Not surprisingly, the initiative has been embraced by a diverse population—not least because of its silence on gun control. In addition, it offers an actionable response—one that does not require trainings, new adult supervisions, or any DOE budget. But, like many behavioral interventions, it is poised on a slippery slope—one that ultimately involves perception, interpretation and assessments of intent.
The recent New York Times Op-Ed piece, “I Tried to Befriend Nikolas Cruz. He Still Killed My Friends.” is an important response to the WalkUpNotOut movement. In authoring it, Isabelle Robinson, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS, pulls us up short with a blunt statement: “It is not the obligation of children to befriend classmates who have demonstrated aggressive, unpredictable or violent tendencies. It is the responsibility of the school administration and guidance department to seek out those students and get them the help that they need, even if it is extremely specialized attention that cannot be provided at the same institution.”
Absolutely, she is right. We should not be asking the youth of this country to step in and intervene with other students who have documented psychological issues that involve aggression.
However.
There are several caveats to any affirmation of her perspective, the two most important of which are:
- Students actually are responsible for the informal environment in any school—whether it be welcoming or cliquish; judgmental or accepting.
- Bullying, like mental health, is a problem in our schools, but neither one is the ‘smoking gun’ (no pun intended) we would like them to be, as we again try to make sense of a tragedy.
It is important to consider both points, and integrate them into Ms. Robinson’s critical stance.
First, and undeniably, young people are the key emissaries of inclusiveness in their schools. Without a doubt, the administration’s expectations of student behavior, and the degree to which they are willing to “look the other way” will inform the culture of a school. Nonetheless, it is the norms of the peer group itself that sets the tone of the hallways, the cafeteria, the buses, and the internet, These go far in determining whether students feel they are accepted or rejected; whether they are part of a community that is tolerant of differences, or eager to exploit them.
WalkUpNotOut challenges young people to reach out to disenfranchised peers. To mobilize support before something tragic happens (‘tragic,’ of course, encompasses much more than school shootings). Surely, no research is needed to confirm that the unsolicited support and kindness of peers—support that does not entail an emotional, self-esteem cost to the victim—is the most potent weapon we have in the struggle to provide emotionally safe environments (although the research does exist-- beginning with Eckenrode and Wethington, 1990, Bolger, Zuckerman, & Kessler 2000, etc.).
Being nice(r) is not, however, a guarantee, which brings us to the second point. Even if MSD High School had the most welcoming, accepting school climate in the country, if WalkUpNotOut were modeled on behaviors already firmly in play, the tragedy might still have happened. Why? Because some shooters did/do have psychopathologies which student-inclusiveness is not going to alleviate. Eric Harris, a co-perpetrator of the Columbine tragedy, had clear mental health issues. Nikolas Cruz certainly seemed to have issues that both students and administrators were aware of.
However, many students have mental health issues. And, precisely because many students have mental health issues, (including anxiety, ADHD, depression, eating disorders, cutting, severe mood swings) there will never be a clear cut, simplistic ‘type’ exhibiting clear ‘warning signs’ we can learn to identify and address. “Mental Health," like “bullying” before it, is a strawman; a simplistic, reductionist explanation for devastating rampages.
We, as a society, bought into the notion of a bully-culture in the wake of Columbine (although lone voices, including Dave Cullen, Peter Langman, and Michael Kimmel, questioned the accuracy of the bullying rationale, with its simplistic good-versus-evil characterizations of behavior). Bullying, as a causal explanation for school shootings, has, of late, been expanded to ‘mental health issues’—though today, the APA itself warns against such reductionism, as do many psychologists (see, for example, Glen Geher’s post on Psychology Today).
Like ‘bullying’ before it, mental health links the horrific and inexplicable to familiar, comfortable cultural narratives, and the stereotypes they spawn (only consider Mean Girls or We Need to Talk about Kevin).
Such caricatures create a false sense of security. In challenging them, however, we must not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Bullying and mental health issues are both part of a larger problem, and nuanced understandings of their dynamics, as well as how students, teachers, parents, administrators, and lawmakers can productively work with them, are in order.
WalkUpNotOut is a step in that direction. Although it can be interpreted as proof of our ongoing commitment to implicating ‘bully culture’ (and as such, it is an indictment of student behavior), it can also be seen as an effort to assume responsibility; to forge bonds and build community.
While it is unfortunate that the fear and pain of some has translated into comments that cause students like Ms. Robinson to see it as an effort to lay blame, or to task youth with ‘solving’ the problem now facing our schools, the fact remains that humiliation and peer rejection are part of the complex web of issues that have made our schools feel unsafe. As are guns—and students have every right to walk out and demand stricter gun control. As is mental health—and school administrators should be encouraged to continue to introduce social-emotional learning in their curriculums, and to allocate further monies for school psychologists.
If nothing else, WalkUpNotOut is an acknowledgement of the power that students do have, here and now. In the last analysis, it is important for Robinson and her peers to recognize that they are closer to other students than any adults. They can read the nuances of youth culture and contextualize peer behavior far better than the most well-intended teachers, counselors, and administrators who peer in from the outside, looking to operationalize “problematic indicators."
Students know the norms in play, see (or know about) behaviors that are under any teacher or school administrator’s radar, and are likely to have a clear sense of kids who need professional help vs those who are just different, odd in their tastes (to the dominant peer groups), or not as socially adept (perhaps even trying too desperately to fit in). They must partner with adults to identify individuals who are struggling, and in need of assistance — repeatedly, for there will always be a cohort who are amused at the idea of offering false confidences of ‘concern about x’ to teachers.
No single action, or initiative, will guarantee safety. But doing nothing and hoping tragedy will bypass your (child’s) school is not a viable option. Students should be applauded because they are taking action. They are demanding change, on many levels, and we should move to capitalize on the opportunities they are creating to Do Something.
