It is a harrowing reality we are all too familiar with today. Rather than assuming their children will be safe while at school, parents now worry incessantly about what kind of harm may befall them.
Since the 1999 shooting in Columbine High School, school shootings have become far more prevalent. Even from just 2008 to 2023, there was a 335% increase in school shootings, going from 18 events in 2008 to 82 in 2023.
One often overlooked trait of many of these perpetrators is their past with divorce or broken family dynamics.
It was this very connection that gained Attorney Ashley Nicole Russell’s attention. We sat down with her to learn more about her research that, last month, allowed her to be invited to speak to Senator JD Vance on her findings and her plans to help combat school shootings.
Attorney Russell first started noticing a trend when news outlets would report on various school shootings and nearly all the perpetrators listed to come from homes of divorced or separated parents.
“I was really interested because I just kept seeing it on the news, so a few of my interns from our program started pulling some data.”
In 2018, her research for her book The Cure, showed that of 52 school shooters studied, 86.5% came from broken homes. And of these, many were in sole custody or majority custody situations to one parent. Attorney Russell shared that it isn’t uncommon for children who witness combative divorces to develop some aggressive tendencies themselves.
“We know that when children are exposed to that war-like mentality, they then feel the shreds of their family torn to the point that their identity is stretched and eventually disappears”, Attorney Russell says. “If your parents are willing to destroy each other and their character, what is it that you, as a 7-year-old, are not willing to do? There’s not a lot.”
While this may seem like a widespread and complicated problem, Attorney Russell’s research has led her to formulate a 2-step process that she feels will help combat this issue.
Step 1: Shared Parenting
“Number one is that we have to institute shared parenting in America.”
Shared parenting is a concept that operates under the presumption that equally shared custody of children after a divorce is the most beneficial to the child, rather than one parent having majority custody. Currently, 8 states have adopted shared parenting legislation: Kentucky, Arkansas, West Virginia, Arizona, Missouri, Utah and South Dakota.
“This allows children to come off of the table as a pawn,” said Attorney Russell. “The breakdown of family law in America is a problem.”
A lack of shared parenting has been linked to increased feelings of abandonment in children, an inability to adjust, and a struggle with conflict resolution.
In the states that have enforced shared parenting, there has been a notable decrease in domestic violence. A study in Kentucky showed that in the year following the implementation of shared parenting laws, domestic violence claims decreased by 445 cases.
“We live in a very equal world these days, but we need to make sure that that equality stretches to parents as well,” said Attorney Russell.
Step 2: Police Officers and Schools
The second step in Attorney Russell’s plan is to have a better intersection between police and schools.
“We don’t need to arm teachers, that is not their job. Instead we need more of a connection between the police force, the retired police force, and the schools.”
The plan would involve either current or retired police officers coming up with a randomized schedule to patrol schools. While patrolling, officers would go around and talk to children, checking in and creating personal relationships.
“That creates a level of communication between the police department and the children. It also allows for a sense of those extra sets of hands around school.”
Attorney Russell also states that the randomized schedule of the officers will help instill more time to intervene, as the shooters would have to plan around the officers potentially showing up. “At that point if you have a school resource officer, an on-duty police officer, and a retired police officer all showing up randomly, that creates a pretty well-rounded security.”
School resource officers have been a tactic used by schools in order to bridge a connection between students and law enforcement.
Aside from the security aspect; however, Attorney Russell actually believes that the communication element will be the most beneficial.
“These children are getting an opportunity to talk to someone. What we have seen is that that isn’t really an opportunity that children have had yet.”
Helping children develop relationships with these officers will strengthen the trust between the two as well as encourage a dialogue, so hopefully children can communicate what they are seeing.
Attorney Russell presented this information to Senator Vance last month.
She stated that her desire is for this information to be more widespread and better understood, so that it has a better chance of being implemented.
“This is a bipartisan issue. This is an American issue. This is a parent issue.”
Attorney Russell’s research and proposed strategies provide a comprehensive and achievable plan to combat the epidemic. Working together to address the issues within the family law system to ensure that children are cared for legally and emotionally after divorce practices will help ensure a brighter future for everyone.
Works Cited:
Russell, Ashley Nicole. The Cure For Divorce Culture: Repairing the Damage Within a Lost Class of
People. 2019
https://www.wagnerandbloch.com/resources/what-are-the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-shared-parenting
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7986964/
https://www.sharedparenting.org/press-feed/kentuckys-popular-joint-custody-law-shows-why-its-the-most-effective-at-helpingfamilies#:~:text=July%202017%20is%20when%20Kentucky,domestic%20violence
%20filings%20dropped%20further.
https://www.courier-journal.com/story/opinion/2019/08/30/kentuckys-joint-custody-law-leads-decline-fa
mily-court-cases/2158216001/
https://www.courier-journal.com/story/opinion/2019/08/30/kentuckys-joint-custody-law-leads-decline-fa
mily-court-cases/2158216001/
https://www.dpi.nc.gov/districts-schools/district-operations/center-safer-schools/school-resource-officers
https://www.carteretcountync.gov/866/School-Resource-Officers-SRO