In light of school shootings in Littleton, Los Angeles, and, most recently, in Gary, Indiana two weeks ago, the National Education Association (NEA) is creating a
communications program to educate journalists about school violence, with hopes of preempting the type of news coverage that spurs copycat massacres.
"It's important for the media to talk about victims as opposed to shooters," says Kathleen Lyons, manager of news media services at NEA in Washington, DC. "Shooters
[appear in the news] but we know from psychologists that this is often exactly the kind of public exposure [troubled] kids are looking for." Shining the national limelight on
perpetrators of violent acts often prompts kids with similar fantasies to act out elsewhere.
NEA's outreach also seeks to prevent exploitation of kids who've witnessed attacks. Rebecca Fleischauer, senior press officer and crisis expert for NEA, recounts one incident
in Flint, Michigan in which an 8-year-old's the testimony resulted in a major magazine article that was factually inaccurate. "Kids that age don't mean to lie, but they like to
use their imaginations," she says.
Interviews with teenagers can have more insidious psychological repercussions. "If the information [teens] give turns out not to be accurate, it can provoke a lot of shame --
something we've learned from school psychologists working where there's been a crisis," Fleischauer says.
To encourage safer, more responsible news reporting about school violence, NEA now posts guidelines for media coverage of such tragedies (developed by the Radio and TV News
Directors Association) on its Web site (http://www.nea.org/issues/safescho/), and has distributed the same guidelines to J-
schools. NEA also faxes and emails the guidelines to local and national newsrooms each time there's a school shooting, and dispatches its state communications directors to
distribute copies of the guidelines on site to news crews.
So far, journalists have been appreciative of NEA's respectful, non-adversarial approach
Fleischauer spent ten days on site in the aftermath of the Columbine shootings and she has developed a master crisis communications guide that local school districts can deploy
in the event of a shooting. The guide offers sample statements, press releases, and an emergency response timeline/checklist, recognizing the needs and concerns of the press,
teachers, parents, law enforcement, local businesses and, of course, students. The guide also offers suggestions for appropriate commemorations and news coverage well after
tragedies occur.
Mentoring the Media
Among the suggestions issued to reporters by the NEA in partnership with the Radio and TV News Directors Association:
- Don't quote unidentified threat makers. A traditional media ethic is to not quote unidentified sources. Why should a school crisis change that standard?
- Don't emphasize motivations of threat and speculate about unverified information.
- Do emphasize consequences and avenues for seeking help and counseling.
- Do emphasize community intolerance for violating the safety of school
- Do emphasize action taken to keep kids safe and to prosecute the threat maker.
(Rebecca Fleischauer, NEA, 202/822-7268, Kathleen Lyons, NEA,202/822-
7213)
Ed. Note: Rebecca Fleischauer is a featured speaker at PR NEWS' Communications Strategies for Nonprofits and Associations seminar, April 17 in Washington, DC.
For more seminar information, visit http://www.PrandMarketing.com/seminars.