Tulane News & Press

1. School shootings require attention, discourse

   In the wake of another mass school shooting, discussion about gun laws and how we think about and treat mental illness are brought back to the forefront of national conversations.
2. Tulane sexual assault survey results hard to compare among schools

   Experts say it is harder to decide whether the stark survey results mean that Tulane University has a much bigger problem than its peers around the country, or whether it simply did a better job of measuring sexual assault by using the most up-to-date methods and that these results may more accurately reflect what could be higher rates of sexual assault experienced on college campuses nationally. It will be hard to know this and compare Tulane's results unless more schools use comparable survey tools.
3. Tulane releases sexual assault survey results

   The report from the 13,000-student private research university adds to growing evidence that sexual assault is a widespread problem on campuses throughout America. Tulane President Michael A. Fitts called the findings “deeply disturbing” and pledged an expanded campaign to end sexual violence.
4. Dean Patrick Bordnick recognized for work in virtual reality for addiction and autism

   Patrick Bordnick received the Not Impossible Vitality Award for an innovation called VR-∆ and VR-Qualis Est Vita (quality of life). Still in development, the VR-∆ is designed to put patients into realistic virtual worlds using smartphone-based virtual reality, recreating situations that identify and trigger cravings akin to drug and alcohol addiction. The tool will allow for individualized patient diagnostics and aids in treatment by teaching coping mechanisms to avoid relapse.
5. Dr. Sarah Deland evaluates Travis Boys on trial for murder

   Sothern called forensic psychiatrists Dr. J. Brad McConville and Dr. Sarah Deland of Tulane University to the stand, both of whom testified Boys was incompetent to stand trial. Deland suggested Boys be treated at the hospital in Jackson, where she said doctors could further evaluate him for competency in a process that could take between two and three months.
6. NOPD patrol officers struggle to properly handle domestic violence calls, watchdog finds

   Tulane law professor and domestic violence expert Tania Tetlow said Friday that such lapses can be expected given the NOPD's severe shortage of officers. "It's an ongoing issue of training as well as of making sure they change ... the hearts and minds of officers throughout the department who can become very cynical about these cases," Tetlow said.
7. Dr. Loretta Sonnier on juvenile prison sentencing

   Loretta Sonnier, a child and adolescent psychiatrist from Tulane University, said it is impossible to predict whether a teenager will be able to be reformed later in life. Because teens’ brains haven’t fully developed, psychiatrists aren’t even allowed to diagnose anti-social personality disorder until the person is 18, she said.
8. Dr. Denese Shervington on rates of depression in New Orleans middle schools

   “At least a third of our kids are really experiencing symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, which on a simple level means it is hard to attend school and do well,” said Dr. Denese Shervington, a psychiatrist and IWES president. At the other extreme, these symptoms could lead to acting out, including committing crimes, she said.
9. Dr. Izabela Steflja on civilian casualties

   “Making Civilian Casualties Count: Approaches to Documenting the Human Cost of War”. Steflja, Izabela; Darden, Jessica Trisko. Human Rights Review, December 2013, Volume 14, Issue 4.
10. Dr. Izabela Steflja on women in combat zones

    Research by Jessica Trisko Darden and Izabela Steflja has demonstrated that the support roles women take up in combat zones challenge our traditional categorization of them as civilians. The increasingly blurred line between combat and support roles in national militaries also poses a challenge for understanding the impact of female combatants on conflict dynamics.
11. Dr. Denese Shervington on traumatic disasters and the “New” New Orleans

    These changes left many people, including psychiatrist Denese Shervington and urban anthropologist Lisa Richardson, wondering about the city’s new identity and their place in it. Not only has Denese relieved mental trauma in New Orleans, but she's also traveled internationally to assist after traumatic disasters.
12. Dr. Denese Shervington on shifts in school discipline

    Psychiatrist Denese Shervington, president and CEO of IWES, said in a recent interview, "You cannot have a society where children are running around with this level of impairment." But her organization's research suggests that New Orleans has just that: a disturbingly high percentage of children with unacknowledged, untreated trauma.
13. Dr. Denese Shervington on rates of PTSD in New Orleans youth

    Dr. Denese Shervington is president of the New Orleans-based Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies. She says many New Orleans children are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. "It's similar to the rate of veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan. It's about the same rate," she said.
14. Dr. Denese Shervington on how trauma manifests in kids

    Dr. Denese Shervington is CEO of the Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies. You may have seen the group’s billboards or social media posts on how New Orleans kids are “Sad, Not Bad.” WWNO talked to the mental health expert about how trauma in the city’s children not only goes unrecognized – it’s misdiagnosed.
15. Dr. Denese Shervington on teen reproductive health and federal funding cuts

    Dr. Denese Shervington, president and CEO of the Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies, told Axios that ultimately, the decision to fund the TPP program and its grantees will depend on how members of Congress view these programs: "For it to be important, they would have to have a heart," she said. "They would have to be thinking about children and their needs versus their own ideology."
16. Dr. Katherine Theall on neighborhood violence

    “I think we often may overlook the impact of just witnessing violence or living in communities with higher violence,” Theall told Reuters Health by email. “Furthermore, it’s important to think about the connections between community violence (often stemming from larger structural forces and lack of infrastructure and investment in some neighborhoods), what that does for violence and other stressors in the home, and the ultimate impact on those most vulnerable like children.”
17. Dr. Stephen Ostertag on NFL anthem protests

    Tulane Sociology Professor Stephen Ostertag isn’t at all surprised about the NFL players’ protest that unfolded during Sunday’s game. He says it’s part of a movement about race. “It seems like this is something that’s been in the making for a while now,” says Ostertag.
18. Dr. Kat Theall on collaborative project to prevent neighborhood violence

    A book from the 1950s helped form Douglas Wiebe’s study of gun violence. Wiebe, associate professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, presented the study as part of the Jane Wilson Smith Lectureship Series at the Tulane University School of Public Health and was co-sponsored by the Mary Amelia Douglas-Whited Community Women's Health Education Center (MAC). Wiebe is working with MAC on a similar local project, too, said director Katherine Theall.
19. Not bulletproof: Tulane plays role in city’s rising gun violence

    “In a city like New Orleans, where the black male unemployment rate hovers around 50 percent, you’re going to necessarily have a whole lot of folks working in the black market economy of the drug trade,” Tetlow, also a former director of the Domestic Violence Clinic at Tulane Law School, said.
20. Tulane prints ad supporting Peter Gold's foundation

    The former Tulane medical student, shot while trying to stop a kidnapping, has already raised $60,000 for his new foundation. Tulane University took out an ad in Sunday's edition of Times-Picayune to promote Gold's "Strong City" foundation.