‘Everyone should feel safe at school;’ Child psychologist shares ways to address violence in schools

TROTWOOD — A recent video of eight middle school students at Trotwood Madison attacking one student has many wondering how to prevent this from happening again.

News Center 7′s Mike Campbell spoke with a child psychologist about what communities can do to address student violence and if interrupted in-person learning during COVID-19 has played a role in the increase of recent student violence.

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“You do see a lot of videos of school fights,” said Dr. Julie Stucke, Child Psychologist at Dayton Children’s Hospital. “Losing those skills, those skills have not been reinforced for a couple years.”

The violent attack on the Trotwood Madison student occurred on Feb. 8, where he was repeatedly hit and kicked and eventually lost consciousness.

Win Dockery and her husband, Daniel, have been told by school leaders the young men that attacked their son mistakenly believed he was friends with another student they targeted.

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“They told me they were taking my baby to the hospital because he had been jumped,” Win told News Center 7.

“How as a parent, can I accept that, and then, as a father, what am I supposed to do then,” said Daniel.

Doctors say stopping these incidents is tougher when it involves groups.

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“Even if someone does have the sense to think, maybe we shouldn’t do this, make sure it is who we think did this; the other ones are just go, go,go,” said Stucke.

Stucke believes to bring down the level of student violence, schools will have to be consistent with discipline policies.

“It really is up to the schools, they really need to take a hard line on this and let all the students know that everyone should feel safe at school,” said Stucke.

Those that work in the child behavior field say it is going to take all of us, both staff and schools as well as parents, to work together to help students catch up and learn to resolve conflicts in a more positive way.

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