BY PAUL COUGHLIN
The Protectors,
The U.S. Secret Service interviewed more than 35 school shooters and discovered a frightening connection between a student bringing a gun to school and what motivated them to murder classmates and faculty.
While there are a number of motivations, bullying is one. The agency concluded that the shooter’s experience with bullying met the legal definition of harassment but also the moral definition of torment.
Until recently, the vast majority of school shootings have rocked public schools. Then shootings in Minneapolis, MN last week, Madison, WI, in 2024, and in Nashville, TN, in 2023, shattered a tenuous wall of protection for Christian schools. Now, Christian school leaders are searching for best practices to safeguard their school communities.
Thankfully, there are effective steps they can take to harden their campuses against this form of predictable, preventable violence.
Best Practices
Convert Bystanders to Protectors
The Department of Health and Human Services conducted a 10-year, landmark study of anti-bullying efforts in America and found most to be ineffective when they reply on authority alone to change the hearts, minds, and souls of children who enjoys dominating and controlling others through harmful behavior multiple times (the blue-collar definition of bullying).
Yet the same study found the freedom-from-bullying secret sauce: bystander intervention. Specifically, positive peer pressure. The study found that children who bully really care how their peers think and feel about them, even when they pretend like they don’t. When their peers denounce their behavior in an assertive yet non-violent way, that gets their attention. That is what can change a bully’s behavior now and into the future, reducing school shootings.
But how can this be accomplished? Studies show that most bystanders recognize bullying is wrong and sympathize with the victims but few act. Why? A lack of courage—a foundational virtue. Courage, mentioned about 14 times in Scripture, deserves to be elevated across your school’s spiritual formation efforts. As Hebrews 10:35 reminds us, it “carries a great reward.”
Anonymous Reporting
We’re aware of anonymous reporting not only thwarting potential bullycides but also stopping possible school shootings. Ensure your system is truly anonymous. This will increase participation among your student body (and faculty) and provide your school with legal cover.
Improve Family Virtues
Bullying isn’t merely a “school problem”—it’s a cultural one. Parents and related guardians—not teachers—should be the first line of defense. Unfortunately, studies show that when parents and related guardians don’t expect their child to commit a prosocial response to bullying, their children see their lack of admonishment as tacit approval. Encourage your families to require their children to commit righteous behavior in the face of this form of cruelty.
Encourage three specific responses:
- Report (not “tattle”) to someone in authority significant events they saw and heard. Remind parents that tattling is about something insignificant designed to get someone into trouble; reporting is about something significant designed to get someone out of trouble.
- Comfort targets afterward with phrases such as “It’s not your fault” or “There’s nothing wrong with you.”
- Direct intervention with assertive but non-violent words, such as “Stop” and “That’s wrong.”
I’m reminded of the quarterback at Prestonwood Christian Academy in Plano, TX, who, when he saw an unathletic classmate being bullied by a handful of teammates, sat next to the boy during lunch. His bullies scattered.
Reform Physical Education
Though physicality is a blessing to everyone, PE class is not. It is often Ground Zero for defeat and humiliation for some students who dread it as it is currently practiced and who are prime targets for bullying. Schools should consider providing different tracks, both highly skilled and others simply recreational. Also, coaches mix up teams to avoid a popularity contest or cliques.
How Do I Forgive?
Forgiveness for bullying (as well as apologies) can drain the pond that becomes a lake of grievance and resentment for targets. Yet according to surveys, forgiveness, which for most is a process, not a one-time decision, is among the hardest behaviors to achieve. So exactly how does one forgive? The booklet, “How Do I Forgive?” by Everett Worthington Jr., shows how from a biblical perspective. Among other insights, he explains how for most people, forgiveness is a mental decision far more than an emotional feeling.
Harden Your Campus
The perpetrator of the Sandy Hook massacre may have chosen that shattered town’s elementary school because, unlike its high school and middle school, it didn’t have police presence.
Weakness invites aggression among the malevolent. So, for schools that can’t afford an SRO (School Resource Officer) or related forms of protection, consider placing a used police car in your area. Move it around to keep evil guessing. Schools must make securing their entrances to their campus and inside their buildings a top priority.
Challenge Them
Your students want to help targets of bullying, but they usually don’t have a game plan. Part of this game plan is accepting a challenge and being part of a movement on your campus. We call it The Protectors Challenge, and in order to become a Protector, a student pledges to be part of the solution. This includes:
- Reporting to an authority figure what they saw and heard, especially if they learn about a weapon being brought to school. This is essential since many school shooters brought their gun(s) to school as a test run. They even told classmates about their plan. Most of whom told no one.
- Joining with another student to stand up to bullying, proven to grow courage and confidence.
Boys More Than Girls
Most school shootings reveal a similar pedigree of grievance, resentment, and untreated trauma. Generally speaking, boys tend to explode when bullied, harming others (even those who didn’t bully them), as girls tend to implode, harming themselves. When assessing potential school shootings, look to boys more than girls (again, as a general rule).
Bullying, like gunpowder, is part of the chain reaction that propels a bullet through a school’s hallway, cafeteria, or classroom. These shootings are evil—and so is the bullying that often precedes them. Encourage your prayer team to intercede not only against school shootings but also against the destructive cycle of serial bullying. Pray that those who bully would see the image of God in the people they target. And because many bullies believe they are superior to others, pray that they would be filled with humility, which almost always precedes deep transformation.
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