#85 - Kate O'Shea - How We Can Address The Root Cause of Violence to End School Shootings

Scarlett Lewis’ guest is mitigation specialist, Kate O’Shea. Scarlett met Kate when she was working on the Parkland, FL high school shooting trial. Mitigation is the storytelling part of representing the criminal defendant. Her job is to explain who a person is, and how this shooting could have happened based on their childhood and past traumas. Kate and Scarlett discuss why there is so much suffering and violence in our world and how we can address the root cause of this violence to end school shootings.  Scarlett and Kate talk about how the individuals who commit mass shootings have unmet needs and they explore how to proactively reduce and prevent these tragedies. Living through trauma as children affects brain development and can result in having no concept of the consequences of their actions. Conduct disorder is something that Kate says is a mental diagnosis given to someone under the age of 18 with a pervasive pattern of using weapons, setting fires, rule violations. This is a trauma based disorder. These are labels that suggest the conduct is what you need to be treating, but in reality the trauma and pain that are the cause of these unsettling behaviors are what needs to be addressed. Treating the underlying trauma is necessary, finding out what happened to them, rather than what’s wrong with them can help us move towards solutions instead of always being one step behind. Healthy attachment and connections, essential life skills, and support, help to overcome these childhood traumas to become successful, productive adults.