Violence Prevention/

Intervention Justification
Paper
PBH 643: Safe and Healthy Relationships

Professor Dipzinski

Casey Schmitt

6/29/2023
Justification Statement
Three Village School District is a school district in Suffolk County, New York. It is
comprised of a large population in which there are five elementary schools, two junior high
schools and one high school. According to the New York State Department of Health, there have
been no significant change in the rate of violence, bullying and long-term effects of these
including suicide for some time now. Seeing now change has occurred can be both good and bad.
But, for us in education, no change is not good enough. On average in a single year, Suffolk
County has 8 suicides. This number has stayed consistent from 2011-2020. (NYSDOH) There
are indeed many factors and indicators associated with suicide. There are also populations who
are at risk for suicide as well. “Research suggests that members of the LGBT population are at a
much greater risk to attempt and complete suicide compared to heterosexual population. For
instance, gay men were up to six times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual
counterparts.” (Journal of Homosexuality, 2011) Also, the Center for disease Control and
Prevention states, Of the reported youth suicides in age 10-24, 83% were males, and 17% were
female (CDC, 2007) With age, gender, and sexual orientation being factors in suicide, we must
ask the question of why, and how to prevent such travesties.
According to the CDC, there are several circumstances that increase suicide risk. Those
include individual risk factors such as history of depression and other mental illness,
criminal/legal problems, impulsive or aggressive tendencies, current or prior history of adverse
childhood experiences, sense of hopelessness, and violence victimization and/or perpetration.
There are also relationship risk factors associated with suicide including bullying, family/loved
one’s history of suicide, loss of relationships, high conflict or violent relationship and social
isolation. There are also community and societal risk factors as well including community
violence, historical trauma, discrimination, stigma associated with help seeking, easy access to
lethal means of suicide among people at risk, and unsafe media portrayals of suicide. (CDC,
2022) With all these numerous risk factors, it is also important to acknowledge and identify ways
to protect all these factors. As a school community, introducing risk factors to our students and
giving them effective coping and problem-solving skills as well as supporting healthy
relationships by giving skills like communication and active listening skills can support all
students who may have risk factors.
 Second Step is a program that offers students in all grades the opportunity to learn
cooperation, communication and decision making through social emotional learning concepts.
By implementing this program into our schools, we can give students the necessary skills to
prevent risk factors from creating an effect on their social and emotional selves in and out of
school. The skills learned can help students develop in a positive and mature way. “Children who
are socially and emotionally competent have more friends and more connections with positive
peers, and are less likely to be rejected, isolated, or bullied. Children with friends are happier and
more successful in school.” (UC, 2007) “Empathetic children with good perspective-taking skills
are less likely to be physically, verbally, or indirectly aggressive toward peers.” (1999)
According to the Systems Theory, all levels of systems in which and individual partakes,
including the individual’s biological system, family, peers, school, community, racial and ethnic
group, socioeconomic class, and culture play a with each other and can impact the individual (K.
Seifert, B. Kohl, 2011 p. 60-61). The influences of these systems can impact an individual’s
effectiveness in functioning. When an individual encounters strength or stressors, they must be
adaptive or maladaptive in that point. What this all means is that this theory helps us remember
that behaviors of an individual are caused by several factors. It is important for individuals,
especially youths, to acknowledge these factors and develop healthy coping mechanisms to
bypass the stressors that may follow.
As the program offers many success stories in which changes occur in school and in
communities, I expect a great outcome from the implementation in our community. In 2026, the
rate of bullying in grades 6-9, 11–14-year-old students attending Three Village School District
will decrease by 20% through the implementation of the Second Step Violence Prevention
Program. In the reduction of bullying and increased knowledge of coping, communication, and
problem-solving skills, it will provide students with a safe environment and prevent certain risk
factors to overwhelm our students which could possibly lead to a suicide attempt.

Purpose Statement
Second Step is a social-emotional learning program that teaches through discussion and
role playing in to build upon skills for success. It provides students with developmental stages
that can be used in and out of the classroom. It utilizes a holistic approach in which it offers
opportunities to be used throughout a child day which can help build a stronger school
community and support inclusion for all. The program offers unit alignments of different
standards and interventions including bullying prevention, child protection and trauma informed
practices. Techniques included in the curricula include gaining confidence, setting goals, making
better decisions, collaborating with others, and navigating the world effectively. In the program,
we can train our staff to be able to deliver effective lessons to our students to assist them with
developing necessary skills to go through life and reduce or eliminate risk factors that are
associated with suicide. The intended outcome of this program is to reach all students and offer
them an opportunity to learn skills that can be utilized their entire life. By acknowledging past
risk factors these students have experienced and giving them healthy ways to cope and manage
the emotions that they can encounter, it can prevent students from the potential of injuring
themselves or others.

Importance of the project

The intended outcomes of implementing this program could be used to reduce violence in
many ways. “Research shows that preventive measures focused on developing social and
emotional competencies and supportive learning climates can foster emotional safety and help
reduce violence.” (CASEL, 2020) With the programs focus on teaching students social and
emotional learning skills, we can emphasis the importance of using those skills in preventing
violent behaviors. With building upon supportive relationships and social and emotional skills,
we can allow students to feel safe, valued, and protected in our school and community. Also,
according to research done within the program, there have been studies to show decreases in
bullying (20% reduction), an understanding of sexual and relationship abuse as well as a
decrease in the likeliness of students involved in physical aggression (42% less likely). (Second
Step, 2008) The program demonstrates effectiveness to reach all areas of violence with its
abundant amount of research and data to prove efficient. Second Step also offers anti-racism and
anti-bias resources for administration, educators, and committees which offers ways of
addressing racial injustices, and helping to drive real change in communities. “These resources
will help you implement SEL in a way that builds on students’ cultural asset’s, critically
examines systems of power, and develops better ways of teaching learning and being. The
Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) calls this transformative
SEL.” (Second Step, 2020) “Transformative SEL is a form of SEL implementation where young
people build strong, respectful, and lasting relationships to engage in co-learning. It facilitates
critical examination of individual and contextual factors that contribute to inequities and
collaborative solutions that lead to personal, community, and societal well-being.” (CASEL,
2023)
Second step offers a variety of programs from grade levels to topics, as well as additional
offerings such as bullying prevention units and child protection units, all which are highly
beneficial for our community. There are a few barriers that may arise when implementing the
Second Step program into the community. The first being the support from the entire community
and funding for the program. It is important to advocate in all ways possible to get the message
out to community members and families, so they are aware of the situation at hand and our plan
to best help our students. Once we have majority involved and agreeing to this implementation,
we can hope to fundraise for the profit of the program which can also assist us in talking about
the message we are trying to send out with the importance of this program. Another barrier we
may come across is the ability for our staff to get on board with the social and emotional
teaching strategies the program includes. As many staff members are in a routine they have set
from the beginning, it may be difficult to include or change their flow. By explaining the
importance of our issue and the benefits of including the program in school, as well as offering
them many professional developments and trainings to be prepared, we will be able to reach all
staff members.

Summary Statement
Violence are acts we must prevent, especially in our schools. By addressing these acts
and involving our community in the severity of these issues, we can allow all individuals to
understand the signs, symptoms, and prevention tactics to apply to our everyday lives. Violence
can come from past experiences individuals have gone through and may have kept in for a
significant amount of time. Although we may not know the exact experience which lead to the
violent act, we can still offer individuals tools and skills to assist them in dealing with the effects
the experience has on them. By implementing the program Second Step, we can offer our school
social and emotional learning lessons and tasks that assist on building upon skills. These skills
can give our students the comfort to speak up when they are encountering stressors. They can
also offer them ways to build relationships and help others. By becoming comfortable with
oneself and creating lasting relationships where one feels safe, secure, and happy, we can prevent
violent acts such as bullying that can potentially lead to tragedies such as suicide from occurring.
The program will ultimately help our youth develop with social-emotional skills to reduce
bullying, emotional triggers, and risk factors that impact their future. Overall, it will give youth
the ability to both thrive in the classroom and in life.
 References

Department of Health. New York State Community Health Indicator Reports (CHIRS). (n.d.).
https://www.health.ny.gov/statistics/chac/indicators/

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022, November 2). Risk and protective factors.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/factors/index.html

Social-emotional learning: Social-emotional skills: Second step. Social-Emotional Learning |

Social-Emotional Skills | Second Step. (n.d.). https://www.secondstep.org/social-
emotional-learning

Paunesku, Dr. D. (2021, September 8). How does SEL Support Educational Equity and
excellence? CASEL. https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/how-does-sel-support-
educational-equity-and-excellence/

Sel and school safety. CASEL. (2022, August 24). https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/how-

does-sel-support-your-priorities/sel-and-school-

Seifert, K., Ray, K., & Schmidt, R. (2012). Youth violence: Theory, prevention, and intervention.
Springer Pub. Co.

Haas, A. P., Eliason, M., Mays, V. M., Mathy, R. M., Cochran, S. D., D'Augelli, A. R., &
Clayton, P. J. (2011). Suicide and suicide risk in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender.
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doi:10.1080/00918369.2011.534038

Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. (2007). Background on social and.
emotional learning (SEL). Chicago: University of Illinois at Chicago.

Kaukiainen, A., Bjorkqvist, K., Lagerspetz, K., Osterman, K., Salmivalli, C., Rothberg, S., et al.
(1999). The relationships between social intelligence, empathy, and three types of aggression.
Aggressive Behavior, 25, 81–89