When school shootings happen

Remember: kids with psychiatric problems usually aren’t violent

By ANNEMARIE SCHUETZ
Posted 12/31/69

REGION — On top of heavy news coverage about kids and their pandemic-related mental health problems, came the murder of 19 children and two adults in Uvalde, TX.

Kids have had a hard time …

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When school shootings happen

Remember: kids with psychiatric problems usually aren’t violent

Posted

REGION — On top of heavy news coverage about kids and their pandemic-related mental health problems, came the murder of 19 children and two adults in Uvalde, TX.

Kids have had a hard time of it in the pandemic. (See related story, “Suffer the children.”) But although some published reports have suggested that the shooter must have been mentally ill, those who actually work in the field strongly urge caution.

“There has been no evidence that [the shooter] had a psychiatric diagnosis or any history of mental illness,” said Lori Schneider, executive director of NAMI Sullivan County, the local affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “It is a tragedy.”

The shooter, she pointed out, had posted violent threats on the internet, and that could predict violence. “But please let's not confuse evil with illness." 

In other words, violence and psychiatric problems do not go hand-in-hand.

"There are many myths and much stigma associated with mental illness, primarily the myth that people with mental illness are violent,” Schneider said.

People with severe mental illness are no more likely to be violent than those without, research has shown. Substance abuse is key. So is the neighborhood someone lives in, or whether the perpetrator was abused as a child.

Basically they’re the same factors that would make a person without mental illness violent, according to a post on apa.org.

Robin Kowalski at the Brookings Institution agrees. “The vast majority of children with diagnosed psychological conditions don’t commit an act of mass violence,” she wrote in January 2022. “Indeed, psychologists and psychiatrists have warned that simply blaming mental illness for mass shootings unfairly stigmatizes those with diagnoses and ignores other, potentially more salient factors behind incidents of mass violence.”

 The repercussions go beyond stigma.

 "When mental illness is blamed for a school shooting, or any other tragedy, it perpetuates that stigma and actually keeps people from seeking help,” Schneider said.

NAMI Sullivan only works with people aged 18 and older, but “children face similar challenges,” Schneider said. “Since the onset of COVID, even people without a history of depression or anxiety are more anxious and depressed.”

And then there’s the problem of access.

“People are more isolated and access to care has gotten harder, as many clinics are not taking on new patients,” she said.

Those struggling with psychiatric problems have enough on their plates. But the rest of us can do our part by not making things worse, advocates say.

“It’s a horrendous, horrible tragedy," Schneider said. "Let’s not compound the tragedy by conflating it with mental illness.”

mental illness, Uvalde, education, NAMI Sullivan County

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