UHCL : UHCL Criminology Department Presents 'Kids Of Santa Fe'

Press release from University of Houston-Clear Lake:

September 10, 2021

The Department of Social and Cultural Sciences Criminal Justice and Criminology program at University of Houston-Clear Lake presented the film, "The Kids of Santa Fe," screened at the Bayou Theater this week. The film highlights the heroes, survivors and families of what Minn describes
as the "largest unknown mass shooting."

"Showing this movie at colleges is critical to raise awareness, to inform and to educate,"
Minn said. "The students here are the present, not just the future. They don't know
how powerful they are."

He added that he hoped students would get a sense of the reality of the situation.
"Even though it's a local tragedy that happened only about 15 miles from here, very
few people know the specifics about what happened. It's one of the worst incidents
of gun violence that's ever happened in the Houston area, but you wouldn't know it,
because it doesn't get talked about. It's as if it was all swept under the rug."

Minn said that gun violence has become so common, people hear about an incident, shake
their heads, and just move on. He believes the situation is out of control.

"People file and forget," he said. "I hope people walked out of the movie feeling
emotional and angry, but much more informed. It would be almost impossible for students
to see this movie and not be affected — it's that significant. People have gone through
such trauma, but the rest of us forget there's an aftermath. We can move on, but they
can't."

More than anything, Minn said he hoped the film would trigger students to become activists.
"We all agree there's a big problem, we just don't agree on the solutions," he said.
"There doesn't seem to be an end in sight. People need to talk more and argue less.
We have a horrible lack of awareness in this country, and I think college is a great
place to talk about a story like this, that needs attention and dialog."

"This film benefits criminal justice and criminology students because it puts a human
face on gun violence," said Associate Professor of Criminology Kim Dodson. "We hear about gun violence and see the news stories, but we don't know what it
is like to experience this first-hand."

She said students will likely work cases involving gun violence over the course of
their careers. "It is important for them to understand they will face critical stress
incidents that may affect their mental health," she explained. "They need to understand
these stressors in advance so that they are not afraid to seek out help. They also
need to be prepared to offer professional support to the victim-survivors of gun violence."

She added that it was imperative that criminal justice professionals know the community
resources available, and how to put the survivors in touch with the proper resources
and support.

"We are living in a time when shootings happen and it's a headline for a day, and
then people move on. It's an evil cycle," Minn said. "The media does not cover these
shootings the right way. I focus on the good Samaritans, the heroes, the survivors
and the families. I never mention the killer's name because I think it glorifies them
and inspires copycats. I want to tell the stories of heroism that took place at Santa
Fe that people don't know about."

For more information about UHCL's Criminal Justice and Criminology degrees, go online.

This press release was produced by University of Houston-Clear Lake. The views expressed here are the author’s own.