Moving beyond misconceptions of school shootings: Evidence-based recommendations for school counselors in the prevention of acts of targeted school violence

Although school counselors are at the forefront of the prevention of school violence, their roles and voices are largely absent from the literature. Of 269 articles published in the Journal of School Violence between 2010-2019, only two center the roles of school counselors in school violence prevention and intervention efforts. Counselors and counseling appear in the literature as participants or in implications sections of published articles, but rarely are the subject of the research itself. Failure to include school counselors in these scholarly conversations further contributes to role confusion and sporadic implementation efforts, weakening the safety net for school violence prevention and intervention. This article seeks to draw attention to the ways school counselors are already doing the work of violence prevention in schools (i.e., mental health, social emotional learning, school climate), and to highlight areas for further training and professional development for practicing school counselors and school counselors-in-training.