Coping with psychological aftermath of school violence: the teacher and the assaulted staff action program

Violence in the United States has become a national public health epidemic. Increasingly, much of this violence has been committed by our young people. School settings have not been exempt from these aggressive acts, and principals, teachers, and support staff have been victims of murder, physical and sexual assaults, verbal threats, and the destruction of personal property. This present paper outlines a cost-effective, empirically-based, crisis intervention approach that was designed for health care providers, and that has immediate application to providers of school psychological services. Known as the Assaulted Staff Action Program (ASAP), ASAP has provided needed support to these employee victims of violence and has been associated with sharp reductions in facility violence. Since ASAP interventions are appropriate for all victims of violence, the implications of an ASAP approach for school faculty and staff victims are examined. The roles of school counselors in designing, fielding, and maintaining an ASAP program are presented.