The last time I authored an op-ed piece was on Dec. 9, in response to the Nov. 30 mass shooting in Michigan, where four students were killed by a shooter who was a student at the school.
On May 24, less than six months later, an 18-year-old shot his grandmother, jumped into a truck and crashed near Robb Elementary School in Texas. Armed, he entered the school during school hours, then killed 19 children and two adults — a tragedy that eerily echoed one that occurred less than 10 years ago at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
The sadness, outrage and shock has continued throughout the country. After each tragic event, you can hear similar comments from parents and community members who are interviewed by the media: I never thought it could ever happen here. I’m sure many of us in Hawaii feel the same. That is, until the unthinkable happens.
In Hawaii, we are certainly not immune to these tragedies, although we have been incredibly lucky so far. The last mass shooting event in Hawaii occurred about 23 years ago in 1999, when an employee of Xerox killed seven and wounded one. But that doesn’t mean Hawaii is safe. In fact, our children are more vulnerable than you think.
A fatal shooting at Tantalus by a juvenile, instances of terroristic threats sent through social media and via email just days before the end of the school year, and three victims shot and wounded near a graduation at the Blaisdell Center — these have all recently occurred and the violence continues. Although these instances do not meet the FBI definition of “mass murder” (multiple homicide incident in which four or more victims are murdered), it certainly feels as if the violence is inching closer and closer within our state.
During the school year, students often go through active-shooter drills. While such drills are useful, it is a reactive response to an emergency that has already occurred. How about we try to create more preventative strategies instead? Is that even possible here? The answer: absolutely.
To create and build a successful prevention program, the state will need to work on those preventative measures now, before mass violence occurs here. Some suggestions the state should be thinking about now:
First, we need to continue efforts to implement and train more Behavior Intervention/Threat Assessment Teams (BITATs) within schools, colleges and universities. Trained BITATs are multidisciplinary teams that identify, assess, intervene when necessary and appropriately manage an individual’s concerning behavior when it affects the school community. When appropriately managed through interventions that work, it is the first step to addressing those concerning behaviors that seem to be on the pathway to violence, before others are hurt. But these teams don’t just happen. They need to be trained, supported by leadership and assisted by experienced individuals. Several teams here have begun to implement national best practice BITATs, but we need more.
Second, violent events don’t usually “just” happen. Oftentimes, there were signs and leakage by the individual to the people closest to them. Hawaii should be trying to build bystander awareness programs that provide options for reporting information to people trained to assess the information and leakage; that way, the Honolulu Police Department can continue to mainly focus on crimes, while other agencies can assist with community-based support and information. Creating community reporting alternatives in several formats (e.g., online form, reporting app or phone number), then providing examples to the community about the kinds of concerning behavior that should be reported, to whom and potential outcomes, will go a long way in building a community willingness to report such concerning behaviors before it’s too late.
Third, we need to strengthen collaboration between government and nongovernment agencies to understand when we “can” and when we “should” share information. For example, while confidentiality is important, there may be exceptions to confidentiality laws in situations where there is a health and safety risk.
Threat Team Hawaii has begun to build and strengthen interagency relationships, but there are still many organizations within the state that are not yet connected to this statewide effort, and they should be. In other words, the relationship building should occur before, not after, a community tragedy occurs.
If we focus the state efforts on preventing these types of tragedies, perhaps we’ll never have to say, “I never thought this could ever happen here in Hawaii.”
Bev Baligad, J.D., is director of compliance, and Title IX and Clery Compliance Officer, at the University of Hawaii-West Oahu; she chairs the UH-West Oahu Behavior Intervention Team (BIT).
