Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The nation continues to feel the effects of the recent mass shootings that took place in Buffalo, New York back on May 14 and Uvalde, Texas on May 24.
It was just over a week after the horrific racially motivated mass shooting at a Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo that killed 10 people when an 18-year-old gunman found his way into Robb Elementary School and killed 19 children, along with two teachers before the shooter was killed.
In Buffalo, schools across the region were talking plenty about the mass shooting at the Tops supermarket on Jefferson Avenue, and how districts approached that situation with students. Following the mass shooting in Texas, the discussions seemed to increase that much more.
Given the circumstances of all that happened with both mass shootings and their nature over the course of 10 days, it has taken its toll on some students and staff at schools around the country. In Western New York, school districts are working to finding a balance between ensuring school safety and helping students that may be dealing with the anxiety of it all.
"The first thing that we want to do in a crisis response situation is ensure that we're doing everything we can to support our children, who are coming to school with complex feelings and questions," said President of the Erie-Niagara School Superintendents Association, Michael Cornell. "Making sure that if they need something more than what the teacher in the classroom can provide - our teachers in classrooms have been amazing through all of this, understanding the kids are going to come to school with complex feelings and questions - being prepared to facilitate dialogue at a developmentally appropriate level with children about how they're feeling. And then making sure that they can provide, a particular child that needs a little bit more help with a pathway to go see the counselor or the school psychologist, a social worker, an administrator to have further conversation and maybe reach out to the parent to make sure that that child gets exactly the help that he or she needs. So that's really where the immediate focus has been with our kids."
In addition to making sure all resources are being made available to students in all districts across Western New York, schools are also making sure all safety protocols are being reviewed.
"As we've mentioned in the past when we've discussed this issue, to make sure that we focus on not only hardening the shell of our schools, but softening the environment inside the school so the children experience joy, value and connection as a result of their school experience. That's really where a lot of the focus has been, and some of that is a function of creating that balance [of school safety with student anxiety]," Cornell said. "We always want to make sure that people recognize and appreciate the details associated with our safety practices, like lockdown drills and shelters in place and the like, without having them lead to more anxiety than students already feel when they come to school, and really when they go to any large gathering place."
With schools doing their evaluations and reviews to ensure all safety protocols are being met effectively, it may also be a time to also check over their communication methods with local authorities to prevent the mishaps that occurred with the tragic events of the Uvalde mass shooting. Being the superintendent of Hamburg Central School District, and having an understandings of how other schools operate in the region, Cornell says that dialogue with law enforcement agencies is constant.
"It's really a relationship that we enjoy together on behalf of our children, families and the communities. We serve together," he said. "It's really not like we have to make a special point to say, 'I better call Chief [Richard] Schara today.' I mean, we're in constant communication in one way, shape, or form over the course of any given week. So we're always talking, and we're always talking about how we communicate and how we can better serve the people in our community. That happens across Western New York, without exception."
Following the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Congressman Chris Jacobs spoke on the need for enhancing security measures in schools across New York State and the United States. Jacobs believes it is paramount to enhance security at schools to provide parents, students and teachers peace of mind.
Along with enhanced security measures inside and outside of schools, Jacobs is also calling for federal funding to implement additional School Resource Officers (SROs) in all school districts. Being a former member of the Buffalo School Board, Jacobs knows first-hand the benefits of having SROs on school grounds.
Cornell feels there's also space for conversation around more funding for the implementation of an accredited youth mental health first aid program in order to increase the capacity to recognize the signs of youth mental illness much more readily across all school systems. However, as Congressman Jacobs identified, it's going to take a multitude of factors to enhance the safety of kids in schools and in the community.
"When you provide all of your adults in your school system with the opportunity to recognize - in a sophisticated way - the signs and symptoms of mental illness in young people to make sure that that child gets the help that he or she needs, that not only makes the school safer, it makes your community safer," Cornell said. "It's going to take a concerted effort on a number of fronts to make sure that our schools and our communities are safer."
Cornell has been in contact with a number of other superintendents in Erie and Niagara County over the past couple of weeks to see how progress is coming along to ensure students, parents and staff of their safety in school districts. While security is paramount for any school in today's society, Cornell believes there's more that needs to be done than just enhancing measures inside and outside of school.
This includes having more of an awareness in the role that social media plays on the lives of children.
"The facts are what the facts are. I mean, there are large parts of social media that are hate-filled cesspools, and kids run themselves down those rabbit holes and find themselves in places that they should not be," Cornell said. "The reality is that kids need to find some measure of joy, value and connection through their school experience. If they don't find it in healthy, prosocial, school-connected ways, they may find it in unhealthy, antisocial ways that are not connected to the school. And too often they find value and connection in the garbage they find on social media. So I think making sure that parents are aware of where their kids are online; again, I think it takes a partnership between the resources that schools have and the awareness that parents have regarding their own children to make sure that the perils and the benefits of social media are appropriately balanced in the lives of our children."
As for helping students, and even parents and staff members, when it comes to coping with anxiety they may face given everything that has taken place, Cornell thinks every school district has been able to utilize some sort of coordinated social emotional learning program or youth mental health first aid program to offer for the community.
"School districts have spent a lot of time and effort fully developing their infrastructure of school-based mental health professionals - school counselors, social workers, psychologists - to make sure they have enough folks to meet the need," he said. "I talked to so many families, for whom the school counselor or the social worker or the psychologist is literally an angel on Earth to their children and to that family. So I think all of us have brought on some amazing people recently to help us with the increase in referrals to the school counselors, social workers and psychologists."
Hear more of our complete conversation with Cornell in the player below:
