Top Takeaways
Resettled refugee youth experience intense emotional reactions—including shock, anxiety, hopelessness, and acute fear of being victims of gun violence—upon confronting the reality of U.S. school shootings, which are largely unfamiliar to them prior to arrival.
Utilizing Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, this study highlights how environmental factors and constant exposure through social media heavily shape these students' heightened perceptions of danger and lack of safety in U.S. educational spaces.
Despite many of these refugee youths having prior lived experiences with political conflict or persecution in their home countries, facing the unique threat of mass shootings inside U.S. schools generates a distinct, acute form of terror and adjustment stress.
Abstract
Mass school shootings and overall school violence have caused increased fear among students and the general public. However, refugee students are less familiar with this phenomenon upon resettling to the United States. Drawing on 30 in-depth interviews with refugee high school students who resettled to a Midwestern city, this phenomenological case study considers the environmental and experiential factors contributing to refugee youth’s perceptions of safety in the U.S. school environment. The authors use Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory to examine and interpret the ways in which refugee students experience and perceive mass school shootings and school safety, particularly through social media. Results indicate that refugee youth feel a mixture of shock, anxiety, hopelessness, and fear of being potential victims of gun violence at school. The findings are noteworthy given refugee youth’s prior experiences with or knowledge of political violence and persecution. This study concludes with recommendations for school social workers to help refugee students feel safer at school and adjust to the prevalence of American gun violence.