Nonprofit: ‘Know the Signs’
Pandemic prompts Sandy Hook Promise to focus on mental health of teens
NEWTOWN — As the damage caused by the coronavirus crisis became apparent in the behavior of school kids early this year, a Sandy Hook nonprofit saw an opportunity to highlight its peerbased programs about red-flag behavior to a captive national audience.
What family hadn’t felt the effects of isolation and disorientation when schools went remote and kids were confined to the home during the pandemic lockdown?
Suddenly Sandy Hook Promise’s signature “Know the Signs” programs about spotting early clues of a youth in crisis could be applied to wider mental health problems beyond schoolbased violence.
The group released a trio of provocative public service announcements, advocating its
programs for youths in pandemic distress, and urging early intervention before the turmoil led to harm of self or others.
“We came out with a set of PSAs called “The Kids Are Not Alright” because we started to see a significant increase of life-safety tips coming into our life crisis center in Miami,” said Nicole Hockley, co-founder and CEO of Sandy Hook Promise, whose first-grade son was among the 26 victims of the Sandy Hook massacre. “Kids were saying every day on our anonymous reporting system, ‘I’m stuck at home,’ ‘It’s not a safe place,’ ‘I’m getting abused here,’ ‘I’m dealing with stress on a daily basis.’”
Hockley’s hope as she faces the ninth remembrance on Tuesday of the day in 2012 when 20 first graders and six educators were slain at Sandy Hook Elementary School is that awareness of red flag signs will increase to the point where peers intervene early in the trajectory of a youth’s crisis, before the youth has developed a plan and the means to carry it out.
“This is why we talk about upstream violence prevention,” Hockley said.
Tuesday’s anniversary comes at a time of heightened awareness about school-based violence after a fatal shooting in Michigan left four teenagers dead. Connecticut has seen a wave of school-based threats and several incidents of violence, including a stabbing at Hamden High School and reports of gunfire at Danbury High School that were unfounded. In Norwalk, a series of non-credible threats against Norwalk High has prompted increased police presence.
Police have responded with increased presence at affected schools, including Newtown High School, where a discarded piece of paper was found with a “concerning” reference to the Sandy Hook shooting. The school said “no credible threat to staff or students existed.”
Even so, Newtown schools will break with the tradition to have class as usual on the anniversary, and opt to conduct class remotely on Tuesday to avoid a repeat of 2018, when a bomb threat on Dec. 14 forced the evacuation of Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Hockley said the coronavirus crisis was continuing to vex school kids who are trying to reconnect with each other after losing a year of school to remote learning.
Gov. Ned Lamont agrees.
Last week, Lamont linked the wave of threats and school-based violence with mental health stress and the upheaval of social lives caused by the coronavirus, saying the COVID pandemic has caused rising “tensions” among youths.
Lamont and the state education department pledged Connecticut’s resources to any district in need.
Meanwhile in Newtown for parents of loss such as Hockley there is no escaping the pain of the hardest day on the calendar.
On the one hand, she said, her heart will never heal. On the other hand, she said, her spirit can draw strength from living with purpose.
“The murder of our children is something we are never going to recover from; we’re always going to be triggered and react,” Hockley said. “However, we can make sure that our children’s legacy is in the saving of lives of other children, even though I would much rather have my son back.”