School Safety in North Carolina: Realities, Recommendations & Resources

The primary mission of North Carolina schools is to provide students an excellent education. To fully achieve this mission, schools must not only be safe, but also developmentally appropriate, fair, and just.Unfortunately, many so-called "school safety" proposals in the wake of the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut have been shortsighted measures inspired by political expediency but unsupported by data. We aim to provide a more thoughtful approach informed by decades of research and centered on the mission of public schools.This issue brief responds to the newly established N.C. Center for Safer Schools, which has requested public input on "local concerns and challenges related to school safety" and has made available the opportunity to submit written comments.The first section of the brief debunks common myths and provides essential facts that must provide the backdrop for the school safety debate. The second section offers proven methods of striving for safe, developmentally appropriate, fair, and just public schools. It also provides examples of reforms from other cities and states. The third section makes note of resources that we encourage Center staff to study carefully.This brief rests on several key premises. First, "school safety" includes both physical security of students as well as their emotional and psychological well-being. Many of the proposals following the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School have had an overly narrow focus on physical security at the expense of this broader picture of holistic student well-being. Second, public education in this state needs more funding in order for schools to even have a chance of achieving their core mission. North Carolina consistently ranks among the worst states in the country for funding of public education.Schools need more resources to implement measures that can truly ensure student safety. Third, student well-being depends on a coordinated effort by all the systems that serve youth. For example, school safety will be helped by laws that keep guns off school property and by full funding of the child welfare, mental health, and juvenile justice systems. Finally, this issue brief is not intended to be a comprehensive set of suggestions. Instead, our focus is on providing the Center important context that we view as missing from the current debate

Electronic Structure of Dangling Bonds in Amorphous Silicon Studied via a Density-Matrix Functional Method

A structural model of hydrogenated amorphous silicon containing an isolated dangling bond is used to investigate the effects of electron interactions on the electronic level splittings, localization of charge and spin, and fluctuations in charge and spin. These properties are calculated with a recently developed density-matrix correlation-energy functional applied to a generalized Anderson Hamiltonian, consisting of tight-binding one-electron terms parametrizing hydrogenated amorphous silicon plus a local interaction term. The energy level splittings approach an asymptotic value for large values of the electron-interaction parameter U, and for physically relevant values of U are in the range 0.3-0.5 eV. The electron spin is highly localized on the central orbital of the dangling bond while the charge is spread over a larger region surrounding the dangling bond site. These results are consistent with known experimental data and previous density-functional calculations. The spin fluctuations are quite different from those obtained with unrestricted Hartree-Fock theory.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl

Interpersonal Behavior in Couple Therapy: Concurrent and Prospective Associations with Depressive Symptoms and Relationship Distress

Objective: This study investigated associations between couples’ interpersonal behavior, depressive symptoms, and relationship distress over the course of couple psychotherapy. Method: After every other session of Integrative Systemic Therapy (M = 13 sessions), N = 100 individuals within 50 couples rated their in-session affiliation and autonomy behavior using the circumplex-based Structural Analysis of Social Behavior Intrex. Concurrent and prospective associations of interpersonal behavior with depressive symptoms and relationship distress were evaluated via multivariate multilevel modeling using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model. Results: An individual’s hostility, as well as the partner’s hostility, positively predicted an individual’s concurrent depressive symptoms and relationship distress, as well as his or her relationship distress at the following session. Partner hostility during one session predicted an individual’s subsequent depressive symptoms. During sessions in which individuals controlled the partner, and separated themselves from the partner, they reported more concurrent depressive symptoms and relationship distress, and more subsequent relationship distress. When partners separated themselves, individuals reported more concurrent depressive symptoms and relationship distress, and more subsequent relationship distress. Conclusions: Results underscore the importance of couples’ in-session affiliation and autonomy behavior in the treatment of depressive symptoms and relationship distress within couple therapy

Opioid Policing

This Article identifies and explores a new, local law enforcement approach to alleged drug offenders. Initially limited to a few police departments, but now expanding rapidly across the country, this innovation takes one of two primary forms. The first is a diversion program through which officers refer alleged offenders to community-based social services rather than initiate criminal proceedings. The second form offers legal amnesty as well as priority access to drug detoxification programs to users who voluntarily relinquish illicit drugs. Because the upsurge in addiction to —and death from—opioids has spurred this innovation, I refer to it as “opioid policing.” This new approach improves in key ways upon previous state responses to illicit drug use. Opioid policing has explicit public-health aims—seeking improved life outcomes for people addicted to drugs without relying on arrest. By contrast, the War on Drugs incentivized arrests, which create myriad negative consequences for drug-law offenders—with few discernible offsetting social gains. Opioid policing also avoids the most problematic aspects of specialized drug courts. Scholars and reformers have documented how these courts provide substandard treatment and employ procedures that frequently lead to more, rather than less, entanglement with the criminal system. Unlike the drug court, opioid policing operates at the pre-booking phase, rather than after legal proceedings have already begun, allowing drug users to avoid the harms of criminal processing entirely. Notwithstanding its salutary features, opioid policing retains key troubling characteristics of both War on Drugs policing and drug courts. The structure of opioid policing programs creates incentives for law enforcement to expand, rather than reduce, surveillance of marginalized populations. What is more, opioid policing may re-entrench rather than disrupt the distributive inequities of race and class that permeate previous state responses to illicit drug use. Ultimately, the assessment this Article undertakes reveals both the limitations of drug-reform efforts situated within law enforcement as well as the reach and the power of the contemporary carceral state

Amphibian and plant communities of natural and constructed upland-embedded wetlands in the Daniel Boone National Forest

Wetlands fulfill many vital ecological functions, including providing habitat for amphibians and plants. Some wetlands, known as upland-embedded wetlands (UEWs), are depressional wetlands surrounded completely by upland habitat. This wetland type has been constructed in many areas for conservation and mitigation purposes, but constructed UEWs often do not function equivalently to natural wetlands, and often have different physical and chemical characteristics. In the Daniel Boone National Forest (DBNF), numerous UEWs have been constructed on ridge-tops to benefit game and bat species. Previous studies have shown that many of these constructed wetlands have permanent hydroperiods and different amphibian communities than co-occurring natural ephemeral wetlands. Wood frog and marbled salamander larvae are found almost exclusively in natural wetlands and green frog larvae and eastern newts are found in constructed wetlands. It is currently unknown whether plant communities at these constructed wetlands are similar to those of co-occurring natural wetlands. My objectives were to a) gain a more complete understanding of the amphibian communities in the ridge-top wetland system of the DBNF, b) to determine if previous amphibian findings are generalizable across the large number of UEWs that have been constructed, c) to determine if plant communities differ between natural and constructed UEW sites, d) to understand the environmental and habitat variables that influence plant communities, and e) to synthesize previous findings with my own research to make management and research recommendations for the constructed UEW system in the DBNF. I measured amphibian catch-per-unit effort and wetland habitat variables at 48 wetlands (10 natural, 6 previously-studied constructed, and 32 randomly-selected constructed). I used Kruskal-Wallis tests, generalized linear models, and nonmetric multidimensional scaling to compare conditions among wetland types and to visualize amphibian communities. Natural wetlands were associated with wood frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus) and marbled salamanders (Ambystoma opacum) and constructed wetlands were associated with green frogs (L. clamitans), eastern newts (Notophthalmus viridescens), and spotted/Jefferson salamanders (A. maculatum, A. jeffersonianum). Four-toed salamanders (Hemidactylium scutatum), cricket frogs (Acris crepitans), toads (Anaxyrus spp.), and chorus frogs (Pseudacris spp.) showed no clear patterns related to wetland construction history. Constructed wetlands had higher amphibian richness and diversity than natural wetlands. Hydroperiod was a major driver of community composition. The introduction of permanent water sources has allowed permanent-wetland obligate species, including newts and green frogs, to colonize the UEW system. These species prey on wood frog eggs and larvae and increase the threat of disease introduction and transmission. My findings supported previous research in the system, indicating that this pattern is representative of the more than 500 constructed wetlands throughout the Cumberland Ranger District. With amphibian declines due to habitat loss, constructed and restored wetlands provide important breeding habitat. Under some climate models, hydroperiods of existing ephemeral wetlands are projected to shorten, disrupting breeding cycles and causing larval death. It is important that constructed wetlands provide habitat that is both structurally and functionally similar to natural reference habitat. I evaluated differences in plant communities at 10 natural and 10 constructed upland-embedded wetlands in the DBNF. I estimated cover class of each understory species in several plots at each wetland and performed visual surveys to capture total species richness at each site. I also measured habitat variables at these sites. Using Mann-Whitney U tests, I found that natural and constructed wetlands differed significantly (α = 0.05) regarding total and nonnative species richness, which were higher at constructed wetlands; and mean coefficient of conservatism, floristic quality, and percent canopy closure, which were higher at natural wetlands. Using cluster analysis and nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) with post-hoc PERMANOVA comparisons, I determined that understory vegetative communities were significantly different between wetland types. Permanent hydroperiod and a history of disturbance at constructed wetlands have resulted in these sites having lower floristic quality, lower ecological conservatism, and more invasive species than natural wetlands. Closed canopy at natural sites increases presence of shade-tolerant understory species. More research is needed to separate the effects of construction history, canopy closure, and hydroperiod on understory communities, richness, and floristic quality. Management and additional research are recommended in the UEW system in the DBNF. Research should address amphibian and plant communities at natural and constructed UEWs throughout all districts of the DBNF, including population dynamics of marbled salamanders, effects of landscape and geologic features on wetland hydrology, and detection and mapping of undocumented UEW sites. Management should focus on conserving existing natural UEWs, reducing the number and density of constructed UEWs, altering a subset of constructed wetlands to encourage natural-type conditions, and removing invasive species from wetland sites. Amphibian community and habitat characteristics should be assessed to select candidate wetlands for alteration or removal. Methods could include draining wetlands by altering dams and shortening hydroperiods by decompacting soil, lowering dams, and planting trees. Post-alteration, plant and amphibian communities should be monitored for at least six years. Prudence and planning are urged in all wetland construction and alteration projects to ensure that the constructed wetlands will meet desired ecological goals and not disrupt existing ecosystem structures

Verbal Response Modes in Action:Microrelationships as the Building Blocks of Relationship Role Dimensions

Dimensions of interpersonal relationships, such as attentiveness, directiveness, and presumptuousness, have typically been assessed through impressionistic ratings or by aggregate scores derived from coding of specific (e.g., verbal) behaviors. However, the meanings of these dimensions rest on the interpersonal microrelationships that are actually observed by the raters or coders. In this qualitative study, the way these global relationship qualities were built from microrelationships at the utterance level was examined in passages from one medical interaction. Applications of microrelationships to future communications research are suggested