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Many schools have introduced violence prevention measures that aim to combat acts such as bullying and carrying weapons on school premises. Despite these attempts, students and faculty live in fear of a school shooting happening in their community. This article reviews the factors that are most prevalent in those who follow through with school violence and the most prevalent cluster of variables seen in cases of school shootings. Next, the etiology of school shootings and the stages-of-change model, applied to school violence, is discussed. The analyses are then followed by implications for social work and how to augment existing practices through practice and policy changes.

Recently, several states have passed legislation allowing conscientious objection for social workers. Due to the potential impact on the profession that these policies carry, it is critical that this issue be explored and discussed within the social work profession. This article examines the arguments for and against conscientious objection, discusses the use of conscientious objection in other professions, and then explores the potential options and consequences for social work. The argument is made that the profession of social work should seek to define itself and its values related to conscientious objection before outside forces make the decision for us.

Mass shootings at primary and secondary schools command an immense amount of media coverage, due to their rarity and lethality. As these tragic events unfold citizens frequently demand answers, and the mediawho is frequently the entity framing the circumstances surrounding these events -are tasked with providing responses to those questions. It is at this juncture that sensationalized information, or simply misinformation, can impact the internalization of perceptions regarding these rare occurrences. Subsequent externalizations from that sensationalized or faulty information -especially policy aimed at prevention -then has the potential to be impacted by that information.This study aimed to examine the factors that mainstream news articles and scholarly journal articles attribute to impacting the occurrence of rampage school shootings. This was done through a content analysis of eight of the most circulated print newspapers and newsmagazines, as well as the entire population of peer reviewed journal articles that discussed the phenomenon. Triangulation of the findings uncovered that there were differences in the factors the two types of sources discussed, as well as in how similar factors were discussed. Implications for these differences were then discussed through analyzing enacted policies that are intended to prevent these tragedies from occurring.