Perceptions of School Safety in the Aftermath of a Shooting: Challenge to Internal Validity?

• Pages: 115-132
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S1521-613620190000024011
• Published date: 26 August 2019
• Date: 26 August 2019
• Author: Jennifer O’Neill,Timothy McCuddy,Finn-Aage Esbensen

115

CHAPTER 7

PERCEPTIONS OF SCHOOL

SAFETY IN THE AFTERMATH OF

A SHOOTING: CHALLENGE TO

INTERNAL VALIDITY?

Jennifer O’Neill, Timothy McCuddy and

Finn-Aage Esbensen

ABSTRACT

Purpose – In the midst of the second wave of data collection for a Comprehensive

School Safety Initiative (CSSI) research project, a mass shooting occurred

at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. This tragic

incident provoked responses across the United States, including intense politi-

cal discourse, organized student protests, and active shooter drills. In order to

assess the potential inuence of a major threat to school safety on the percep-

tions of adolescents, this chapter analyzes the survey responses of middle and

high school students in St. Louis County.

Methodology/approach – Approximately one-third of the sample was surveyed

prior to the shooting and the remaining students completed surveys within three

months after the shooting. The authors examines the potential inuence of the

shooting on students’ reports on a number of school safety issues, including fear

and perceived risk of victimization, likelihood of reporting guns on campus,

and engaging in avoidance behaviors.

Findings – Results indicate that the shooting signicantly inuenced students’

perceptions of school disorder and likelihood of reporting a weapon at school,

Methods of Criminology and Criminal Justice Research

Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance, Volume 24, 115–132

Copyright © 2019 by Emerald Publishing Limited

All rights of reproduction in any form reserved

ISSN: 1521-6136/doi:10.1108/S1521-613620190000024011

116 JENNIFER O’NEILL ET AL.

especially in white, less disadvantaged schools. The results also reect meaning-

ful effects based on the timing of data collection post-shooting, with many of

the signicant changes appearing within three weeks after February 14, 2018.

Originality/value – This study explores how external events may inuence

student perceptions of school safety. Moreover, this study offers a methodological

contribution by demonstrating an assessment of the Parkland shooting as a

potential threat to internal validity.

Keywords: History effect; school shooting; perceptions of school safety;

internal validity; fear of crime; indirect victimization

INTRODUCTION

School safety research and programing have gained increased attention following

highly publicized mass shootings on school properties. In response to the 2012

shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the US Congress allocated approxi-

mately $250 million over the course of four years to the National Institution of

Justice to oversee the Comprehensive School Safety Initiative (CSSI). This initia-

tive aims to examine the causes and consequences of school violence and evaluate

or implement strategies and programs to enhance school safety. In the midst of

one CSSI project’s data collection, what has been characterized as the “deadli-

est school shooting since Sandy Hook” occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas

High School in Parkland, Florida (Sanchez, 2018). The shooting resulted in 17

deaths, a surge of media coverage, re-ignition of the political debate over gun

policies and school security measures, and a student-led movement for national

gun control (Bromwich, 2018; Siegel, 2018). Research continually documents that

fatalities in schools, especially casualties at the level of the Parkland shooting, are

statistically rare (Dinkes, Cataldi, Kena, & Baum, 2006). Fox and Fridel (2019,

p. 8) note, “Without minimizing the pain and anguish resulting from the shoot-

ings,” national responses to shootings may be disproportionate considering they

are statistically rare. Of the more than 50 million students enrolled in schools

in the ve years preceding the Parkland shooting, 13 were shot and killed, thus

indicating that the risk of victimization in a school shooting is relatively low.

That said, responses to these rare shootings in schools and broader society ensure

students are made aware of the threat of these violent events, and there is sub-

stantial evidence that indirect exposure to violent events can inuence fear and

broader perceptions of the environment (see Skogan & Maxeld, 1981; Smolej &

Kivivuori, 2006; Warr, 2000).

Media attention to events such as school shootings may increase individuals’

fear, or draw attention to problems in schools, making issues more salient to even

those individuals removed from the specic event. Due to these potential effects,

it is worthwhile to explore how the Parkland shooting may inuence student