Educators, students, and Lehigh Valley Community members gathered in POacker Auditorium on Lehigh University’s campus March 5 to talk about a horrific issue: school shootings.

The Crucial Conversations “A Focus on a School Shooting: What Everyone Should Know” was composed of Dr Joseph Roy, superintendent of Bethlehem schools and psychologist Dr. Peter Langman. Psychologist and Lehigh professor Dr. Nicole Johnson moderated the panelists as they addressed major concerns regarding school shootings and gave their expertise on how to avoid school shootings as well as protect students and the community in all shooting related circumstances.

Members of the audience had a chance to ask questions and participate in the conversation as a community.

Psychologist, school shooting expert, and author of “School Shooters: Understanding High School, College, and Adult Perpetrators,” Langman said while school shootings are a pressing problem in society, they do not occur as often as people think. He believes that we should all prepare instead of panicking.

“Overall schools are the safest place our kids can be,” he said. “School-related homicides are 1 percentof the homicides in this nation.”

Panelists discussed the importance of identifying possible school shooters in schools. Unfortunately today there is not one profile of a school shooter, so peers, teachers, parents and professionals must look closer at social and psychological features of students. We can no longer rely on the classic trench coat to indicate a potential shooter. Panelists encouraged people to look beyond the stereotype of a school shooter as someone who is visibly depressed, and socially awkward when trying to identify a threat.

In addition to recognizing shooters, Roy spoke about the necessary shift in prioritizing safety measures. He said spending money on metal detectors and bullet proof glass might protect against shootings, but will not prevent shootings or find the root of the problem.

“There’s a shift in the thinking right now around school safely,” he said, “going from that focus on the defenses to what’s going on inside the school, school culture, climate, relationships, behavioral health, mental health services, training to do threat assessments.”

Roy added it is important to teach people the warning signs and properly train individuals to help their students, friends, or children before any situation escalates. Early identification and providing students with the help they need as quickly as possible is essential.

Warning signs can be easy to see, but students can be reluctant to report their friends, or recognize the severity of the situation.

“Often it’s so obvious,” Langman said. “Kids say they are going to bring a gun to school and shoot people and their friends don’t take them seriously.

“The perpetrator might want his friends to join them in the attack and the kid might say no, but he doesn’t report that,” he said.

Other common warning signs could consist of a student taking an interest in past school shootings or doing research and presentations on shootings. Abnormal posts on social media regarding shootings can also often indicate a possible attack. Teachers are encouraged to keep a close eye on student’s work and bring any unusual essays or projects to the attention of school counselors.

The panelists reflected on hope that they have for the future in terms of keeping students safe and eliminating the frequency of school shootings. They believe that schools and administrators are working diligently to establish better plans and training necessary to keep schools safe. Roy reminded the audience that school shootings are not likely to happen.

“Any given school has a chance of once in every ten thousand years of having school shooting,” Roy said.

“We spend a lot of time thinking about how to prevent school shootings,” added the moderator, Dr. Johnson, “but maybe we can focus on how to create a better and safer community for all of our students on a daily basis.”