Texas Senate confronts mass shootings: ‘We need to talk about social contagion’
Texas lawmakers at the Capitol on Wednesday questioned expert witnesses on social dysfunction, mental health, and the role of social contagion in school shootings, also taking testimony on the shortage of school counselors and school psychologists across the state.
The hearing of the Senate Select Committee on School Security aims to inform future policy and xspending decisions after lawmakers woke up to nearly $3 billion in unexpected revenue last week. Citing strong economic growth, Comptroller Glenn Hager raised revenue estimates for the 2018–2019 biennium and issued a statement that effectively invited the legislature to make supplemental appropriations.
Senator Larry Taylor (R-Galveston), chairman of the committee, asked the first panel of witnesses about the ‘copycat’ effect in school shootings. “We are hearing that these kids are studying the ones that came before,” he said, also noting that Texas schools saw an increase in threats after the Santa Fe shooting in May.
Dr. Cliff Moy, Behavioral Health Medical Director at TMF Health Quality Institute, agreed with the lawmaker, saying, “We need to talk about the role of social contagion.” He cited the role of social media and news media, comparing the contagion effect in mass shootings to cases of cluster suicides. “We have to be mindful of that and think about what role do we have — what role does social media have in spreading that contagion?”
“Unfortunately we have a lot of people in this population starved for attention,” said Senator Taylor, “and I’m afraid we may have a number of students out there contemplating this even as we speak.”
Yet Dr. Jeff Temple, director of behavioral health at The University of Texas Medical Branch, downplayed the focus on social media. “Social contagion is real. But social media is here to stay and kids are smarter than us and are going to continue using social media. If we try to police it, we are going to lose.”
Dr. Andy Keller, CEO of the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, commented, “There has been an increase in feelings in social isolation.”
‘Unfortunately we have a lot of people in this population starved for attention’
Studying social, psychological, and cultural factors that may lie behind mass school shootings is part of the mandate of the Senate Committee. It was created to examine “risk factors such as mental health, substance use disorders, anger management, social isolation, (and) the impact of high intensity media coverage.”
The committee’s interim charge from Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick refers to “the so-called ‘glorification’ of school shooters,” “copy cat shootings,” and “the desensitization to violence resulting from video games, music, film, and social media.” Other topics within the purview of the committee include finding ways to keep guns out of the hands of children, ‘red flag laws,’ and studying school security options, but those topics were the subject of earlier hearings.
Senator Eddie Lucio (D-Brownsville), who turned the conversation this morning to video games, commented, “I have a great concern on video games that deal with death, death, and more death, and blood — that doesn’t help, and in many respects those that already might have problems that may be leading them to hurt somebody.” He compared the glorification of violence in video games to the glorification of speeding in automobile advertisements “It leads young people to follow that kind of action which leads them to become reckless and might end up causing someone’s death.”
“Those are things going on in our society that are permissible,” he said.
Temple was skeptical of any connection between mass shootings and video game violence. “For every mass shooter that has played violent video games I could show you five million kids who haven’t,” he said.
But psychiatrist Moi was not so sure, saying, “I have to wonder about just in general the overall effect of glamorizing or desensitizing people to violence. That certainly happens with these games and, as a parent, I would certainly recommend a limit on the amount of time that a kid plays these games.”
Keller, for his part, pointed out that video games can ‘crowd out’ healthy behaviors like sleeping, socializing, and spending time outside, and physicians have recommended limiting screen time for kids. “I actually have a study that talks about inadequate sleep as a predictor of violence,” noted Temple, the UTMB director of behavioral health. “Lack of sleep will exacerbate every single mental health problem that’s out there.”
An expert witness raised questions about media, sleep and socialization in the following panel too. “As far as the media I think we’re getting more and more disconnected,” said Dr. Stephanie Barbre, a school psychologist who works with five rural school districts in the Lubbock area. “In the previous panel we had talked about the lack of sleep. A lot of the students I talk to say, ‘I watched Youtube until I went to sleep.’ Well what time did you go to sleep? ‘2 in the morning.’”
She pointed out that this really is an issue of parental involvement, not just school counseling.
Remarks like these colored Wednesday’s hearing with a touch of nostalgia for a technologically simpler time. Senator Taylor remarked at one point, “It used to be when we were growing up that TV went off at midnight. Remember? The Star-Spangled Banner and whatnot?… and I think there’s a lot of options out there now for people to stay up at all hours.”
‘Lack of coping skills’
A group of school counselors, psychologists, and mental health experts testifying urged senators to focus on the financial needs of Texas schools, including the shortage of behavioral counselors. “One of the root causes of school shootings is that we are not doing the best job of teaching the necessary coping skills that students need to make good decisions,” testified Sharon Bay, representing the Texas School Counselors Association.
She called for a model that promotes “character education.”
Likewise, school psychologist Barbre, the Lubbock area counselor, said, “We would like to see more social, emotional learning taking place at all grade levels.”
“Sadly, schools are not required to hire a school counselor and on many campuses counselors are inundated with non-counseling and administrative duties that they have little time to implement a counseling program,” said Bay, who also works as a school counselor.
Texas schools have 1 school counselor per 450 students
According to Bay, Texas school administrators need training on how to work with counselors: “They give duties to counselors that are not in our job description.” Her point echoes a finding in Governor Greg Abbott’s school safety plan published in May, which says, “Many counselors employed by Texas schools are licensed in mental and behavioral health, but because of the other responsibilities placed on them, are unable to care for health needs of their students.”
Barbre pointed out there is only 1 school psychologist for every 2,792 students. “The point is there is not enough of us,” she testified. In terms of school counselors, the ratio in Texas is 1 to 450, well below the national standard of her organization of 1 to 250, according to Bay.
The chairman of the select committee appears open to considering a funding boost for Texas school counseling programs. In an aside to fellow Senator Royce West (D-Dallas), who said increasing state funding could in turn bring in matching federal funds, Taylor said that it was “very worth looking into.”
Senator John Whitmire (D-Houston) concurred, saying, “Instead of being concerned about needles in a haystack we need to be concerned about all the hay.”
