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Traditionally, bullying has been seen predominantly as an “in-person” behavior—that is, it occurs as a face-to-face interaction or confrontation between two or more individuals (a “bully” and a “victim”). In old movies, books, and TV shows, schoolyard bullies harass their victims in the hallways and threaten them on the playground. But bullying is just as […]

In 2013, an Illinois teacher named John Dryden made headlines by informing his students that they did not have to fill out a school survey if they did not wish to, after noticing that the surveys had the students’ names printed on them. Dryden was reprimanded for doing this, even though there are a multitude […]

As an educator, you arguably have one of the most challenging jobs in the world: engaging your students in the classroom so you can teach them. Knowing how to engage students is critical to being an effective educator; if students aren’t engaged, they’re likely not learning[1]. The modern age doesn’t make it any easier, either. […]

We all want the best for the students in our schools, and the greatest gift we can give them is a positive school climate in which they can learn, develop relationships, and discover their own identities as they grow older. However, it can be difficult to determine exactly what constitutes a positive learning environment as […]

August 12, 2014 The following is in response to an email sent out mid August 2014 about the 2015 ONDCP strategy.   Dear Mr. Botticelli, Thank you for requesting feedback on the 2015 National Drug Control Strategy —  a sound and robust strategy grounded in research and projected outcomes necessary for a national effort. However, […]

What Do Students Most Need To Engage Them During Lessons? January 21, 2014 Your students are the beneficiaries of your knowledge, but how do you know how to communicate information to your students in a way that they will retain information. The problem all educators face is pupils have different ways of learning and it […]

It is always a tragedy when there is a school shooting, even in the most recent case in Dekalb County where no one was injured. There are a few things that strike me about the incident. One is that there was a history of violence and mental health issues in Michael Brandon Hill’s past.  And secondly, the security measures that had been implemented in the school since the Sandy Hook incident were completely ineffective.

The gunman in this case, like the one at Sandy Hook, was not a student at the school and this incident was not about retribution against teachers or fellow students as in the incident at Columbine. But that does not change the fact that the mental health of these individuals was not identified or treated effectively by the system that they both participated in growing up. At Pride Surveys, some of our time is spent working closely with institutions of mental health and education to gauge substance abuse, violence and many other elements that contribute to overall mental health and student achievement through student surveys. These type of services may or may not have had any effect on Hill, but I assume if there had been a system in place to identify and provide treatment for him in the first place, this incident may have never happened.  The same goes for the incidents at Sandy Hook and Columbine.