Florida school shooting: Sandy Hook mom stresses need to 'Know the Signs'
On Dec. 14, 2012, Nicole Hockley's 6-year-old son, Dylan, died in a much-loved teacher's arms at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
A day after a gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Hockley headed to South Florida to do "whatever I can to be of service," she said.
Hockley, a founder of gun violence prevention nonprofit Sandy Hook Promise, had no set agenda for her visit.
But as details emerged of the worst school shooting since Sandy Hook, Hockley saw sad similarities.
"I think it's far too soon for families," she said in a phone interview before her flight to Florida. "But if they want to speak to me tomorrow, two weeks, two months, two years from now, I'm always open for that."
Hockley told FLORIDA TODAY in 2015 that "change needs to be embraced at a community level," and not to depend on lawmakers to solve gun violence.
Nothing has changed in that respect, she said Thursday.
"It's incredibly frustrating when we hear the same talking points come up, from both sides of the argument, time after time ... when you hear politicians echo the same call for thoughts and prayers, or for gun control, or for guns everywhere," she said.
"I'm sick of the same things being repeated. We're banging our heads against the wall. None of these solutions are working. Let's take them off the table and focus on what we can do, about teaching people how to recognize these signs and what action to take."
What are those "can do" actions?
Sandy Hook Promise's Know the Signs program is one of them, she said. It educates communities and young people about knowing the signs of potential gun violence in their homes, schools and communities, and what to do when those signs are spotted.
It's been taught in all 50 states, to close to 3 million people, Hockley said. It's in place in all Miami-Dade high schools, an hour from Broward County.
"We've gotten incredibly good feedback," Hockley said. "We know the training has directly averted multiple school shootings, threats, suicide threats and other forms of self-harm such as cutting. It's reduced bullying and gotten kids to the mental health services they need."
And those signs are out there, Hockley said. Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old suspect in the Florida shooting, had been expelled from the school where the shootings occurred and had posted disturbing material on social media before the shooting spree. Eight out of 10 school shooters have told someone of their intent or talked about it on social media, Hockley said.
"If students, adults, teachers don't know how to recognize and take action and intervene, that's when tragedies occur rather than intervention," she said.
"Anything that doesn't look right could help police."
Other actions, she said, can include pushing for Extreme Risk Protection Orders, ERPOs, laws that allow law enforcement and family members to go to court to petition to have firearms temporarily removed from someone who is a clear threat to others or himself.
Some states have passed ERPOs and some have bills pending, she said.
With those laws in place, "once signs are seen, there's a policy in place for how to assure that person doesn't have access to a weapon," she said.
She's also a strong supporter of the STOP School Violence Act 2018, which would create funding for programs such as Know The Signs and other violence prevention training and tactics.
It was introduced in the House Jan. 30 by Florida Republican John Rutherford, with co-sponsors Rep. Ted Deutch, a Florida Democrat; Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky.; and Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash. It will be introduced on the floor of the Senate next week.
Hockley's mission to educate, she said, started a month after her son's death, but it's about all children, all families, all people.
"This is 100 percent of my life now," she said. "... I helped launch Sandy Hook Promise and it's been absolutely my full-time mission every day since then, all I do. I go around the country teaching people how to know the signs ... It's not political. It's about teaching people what actions they can take. It's about humanity; about looking out for each other. Just giving these tools to kids ... if they're seeing things out there on social media, not knowing what to do, we're failing our children."
By: Britt Kennerly
Source: Florida Today