WCC workshops focus on responding to violence

With shootings at high schools and university campuses regularly making headlines along with gang and domestic violence, Waubonsee Community College is hosting two workshops focusing on how schools and law enforcement respond to such tragedies.

Lt. Col. David Grossman, who is retired from the Army, will lead the workshops Thursday in Waubonsee's new Academic Profession Center on the college's Sugar Grove campus. He has studied violence and the roots of crime for many years and pioneered what he calls the field of "killology." He also wrote the Pulitzer-prize nominated "On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society" as well as "Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill: A Call to Action Against TV, Movie and Video Game Violence."

The first of Grossman's workshops, "School Safety: Lessons from Columbine, Virginia Tech and Beslan," will explore violence in the media and some of the causes behind school shootings and other violent acts.

The afternoon workshop, "The Bulletproof Mind: Mental Preparation for Duty," is designed for law enforcement officials who find themselves in life and death situations while on the job. Grossman will be discussing the psychological and physiological responses to these incidents and how to prevent post traumatic stress disorder.

Joe Heinrich, who teaches in Waubonsee's criminal justice department, said he saw Grossman speak several times during his own 27-year career with the Geneva Police Department.

"A lot of what he learned in the military he has used to help law enforcement," Heinrich said.

Grossman is from Jonesboro, Ark., and helped officers with the investigation into a school shooting at a middle school in 1998. He has long studied the issue of why children would kill other children. He has especially focused on the affects of violence in the media on children.

Heinrich said one study in Michigan encouraged families to turn off their televisions and use computers for homework only. No video games played late into the night or CSI, Criminal Minds and Sopranos during prime time.

Students' grades improved, incidents of bullying dropped and other benefits were seen, he said.

But school violence is not limited to high schools and middle schools. College campuses have also become all too aware of the potential for such tragedies.

"Virginia Tech opened up a lot of eyes at the college level," Heinrich said, referring to the last spring's shootings that left 33 students and faculty dead and more than two dozen injured.

Heinrich said it is important for schools to think about how their campuses would respond to such a situation. While the morning workshop from 8 a.m. to noon is geared toward educators and students, all are welcome, he said.

Likewise, the afternoon workshop from 1 to 5 p.m. will have a law enforcement focus and the public is welcome to attend.

The cost for each workshop is $59 or $99 for both. Lunch is included for all who attend.

More information and registration are available by calling Heinrich at (630) 466-2551 or e-mailing him at jheinrich@waubonsee.edu. Registration is also available at www.waubonsee.edu/grossman. More information about Grossman is also available at www.killology.com.

Waubonsee Community College is on Route 47 between Interstate 88 and the village of Sugar Grove.