Katia Riddle
Appearances
Up First from NPR
Murder As An Act Of Terrorism, Fed's Rate Cut Decision, Female Mass Shooters
Very. You know, the federal government does not track school shootings, but a number of journalistic and research organizations have stepped in with their own data collection on this topic. One of those is the Violence Prevention Project Research Center at Hamlin University in Minnesota.
Up First from NPR
Murder As An Act Of Terrorism, Fed's Rate Cut Decision, Female Mass Shooters
Researchers there have been tracking every homicide that has occurred in the last 25 years at a school, and there have been a small number of school shootings committed by girls. Most of those have been individual homicides.
Up First from NPR
Murder As An Act Of Terrorism, Fed's Rate Cut Decision, Female Mass Shooters
I talked to the executive director at this organization. Her name is Jillian Peterson. She said she was quite surprised when she found out the shooter at the school in Wisconsin was a girl. Across the board, she says troubled males are just more likely to perpetuate something like this.
Up First from NPR
Murder As An Act Of Terrorism, Fed's Rate Cut Decision, Female Mass Shooters
That's right. You know, Peterson points out that the age of the shooter, 15, is typical for this profile. That's a sensitive time in adolescence where executive function is not very well developed for girls or boys. Obviously, there's a lot we still don't know about the situation, and it's captured the public's attention.
Up First from NPR
Murder As An Act Of Terrorism, Fed's Rate Cut Decision, Female Mass Shooters
But Peterson says it will be important in the coming days and weeks to ask the same questions that we would of any school shooting.
Up First from NPR
Murder As An Act Of Terrorism, Fed's Rate Cut Decision, Female Mass Shooters
You know, there are patterns of behavior around mass shootings. Often in retrospect, when a tragedy like this happens, those might seem obvious and people question why they were missed. But the vast majority of troubled adolescents don't commit mass shootings.
Up First from NPR
Murder As An Act Of Terrorism, Fed's Rate Cut Decision, Female Mass Shooters
Prevention strategies around individuals are certainly important, especially given they can often overlap with suicide prevention strategies. But some experts say it's dangerous to become too attached to any one narrative about who commits these kinds of acts. Another expert I talked to is Jonathan Metzl. He studies gun violence at Vanderbilt University.
Up First from NPR
Murder As An Act Of Terrorism, Fed's Rate Cut Decision, Female Mass Shooters
He said the shooter's gender is not the most salient fact in this circumstance.
Up First from NPR
Murder As An Act Of Terrorism, Fed's Rate Cut Decision, Female Mass Shooters
Over 30,000 children go to a school that's been affected by gun violence this year. That's according to the Washington Post database called School Shooting Tracker. Experts say given the breadth of this epidemic, our preconceived narratives are just not always going to be accurate.
Up First from NPR
Murder As An Act Of Terrorism, Fed's Rate Cut Decision, Female Mass Shooters
You're welcome, Steve.
Up First from NPR
Election Interference Report Goes Public, Wildfires and Mental Health, Pete Hegseth
Hi, Steve.
Up First from NPR
Election Interference Report Goes Public, Wildfires and Mental Health, Pete Hegseth
Well, I was at an evacuation center yesterday, and there were a lot of people who still just looked very dazed as they waited in line for resources like FEMA paperwork or services from the Red Cross. Experts I've talked to have pointed out that even for people here who weren't forced to evacuate, there can be ripple effects. If someone you know is affected, the trauma response can be contagious.
Up First from NPR
Election Interference Report Goes Public, Wildfires and Mental Health, Pete Hegseth
And then some people are still awaiting the possibility that they will have to evacuate. So the cycle of trauma is still very much happening. One thing that is unique to these kinds of natural disasters is that people are grieving not just their own homes and communities, but there's a kind of grief for the land that happens.
Up First from NPR
Election Interference Report Goes Public, Wildfires and Mental Health, Pete Hegseth
L.A., you know, is a place of just staggering, really breathtaking beauty. And people here rely on that natural environment for emotional support. Here's a gentleman named David Eisenman. He's talking about a hike that he and his wife would take regularly in the Palisades.
Up First from NPR
Election Interference Report Goes Public, Wildfires and Mental Health, Pete Hegseth
Eisenman is a doctor here in Los Angeles, and he is also an expert in disaster response. He's the director of the UCLA Center for Public Health and Disasters. He studied this phenomenon. It has a name, solastalgia. He says solastalgia can be just as real as any other kind of grief and that it needs to be addressed with mental health strategies.
Up First from NPR
Election Interference Report Goes Public, Wildfires and Mental Health, Pete Hegseth
Well, there are evacuation centers throughout the city with mental health providers on call to help people who are in crisis. Many of them are practicing something called psychological first aid. That's a kind of CPR equivalent of mental health care. It means working with people to identify and address their immediate needs, things like shelter, food, medication.
Up First from NPR
Election Interference Report Goes Public, Wildfires and Mental Health, Pete Hegseth
in service of supporting their mental health like i said i visited one of these shelters yesterday clinicians there said they have seen hundreds of people in the last week while i was there i talked with lisa wong she's la county's director of the department of mental health she said her staff across the city have really risen to the occasion but she says in a way people still have a lot of adrenaline this is the easy part
Up First from NPR
Election Interference Report Goes Public, Wildfires and Mental Health, Pete Hegseth
Well, research shows that most people will not develop debilitating post-traumatic stress disorder in these kinds of situations. But even if folks aren't at risk of developing PTSD, it's well documented that wildfires are correlated with increases in anxiety and depression in communities.
Up First from NPR
Election Interference Report Goes Public, Wildfires and Mental Health, Pete Hegseth
In Los Angeles, as in many places, there are shortages of clinicians like psychiatrists and psychologists, just not enough people to provide one-on-one mental health care for all the people who will need it. Several experts I've talked to here have pointed out that in the face of increased disasters like this one, the mental health system is not equipped to handle the resulting needs.
Up First from NPR
Election Interference Report Goes Public, Wildfires and Mental Health, Pete Hegseth
Thanks, Steve.