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Warning Signs of School Violence

A Threat Assessment Perspective

By Dorothy Lehman Hoerr, Parents' Source, November 20, 2000.

When parents send their children off to school, they want to believe that their kids are in a safe, healthy environment. Nothing is more frightening than to hear about school shootings in the news. Parents, teachers, and the whole community struggle to understand what would cause such a tragedy and how it could have been prevented.

The FBI recently issued a report entitled, "The School Shooter: A Threat Assessment Perspective," which seeks to identify the warning signs of school violence and recommend a process for intervention. In 1999, in response to the shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, the bureau held a symposium to study school shootings. The principles derived from that symposium, along with the FBI's nearly 25 years of studying threat assessment, have led to this report.

The FBI cautions against responding to school violence with a "knee-jerk" reaction. The pressure for immediate action may lead communities to develop "checklists" for identifying potentially violent students or to implement rigid security measures. The fact is, no way has yet been found to identify students who are at risk of committing violent acts. And creating strict security precautions without understanding the underlying nature of the problem is not an effective solution.

Much of the public's concept of school shootings is inaccurate. School violence is not an epidemic, as the media would lead us to believe. Rather, incidents like those we hear about in the news are quite rare. All school shooters do not fit the stereotypical image of the loner with aberrant behaviors and interests, and not all are motivated by revenge.

The FBI report stresses that each instance in which a student makes a threat against a school must be evaluated individually; that a "one-size-fits all approach" to school violence is not effective. Each threat should be assessed according to how much thought, planning and preparation it evidences. The more detailed a threat, the more seriously it needs to be taken. However, all threats, regardless of seriousness, need to be responded to as quickly as possible.

The most significant part of the FBI's assessment model, however, is its four-pronged approach to assessing the student making the threat. According to the report, considering the personality traits, family dynamics, school dynamics and social dynamics of the student is crucial to handling a threat effectively. If the identified student appears to have difficulties in a majority of these four areas, the threat is more likely to be carried out and should be dealt with accordingly.

Some warning signs that a student might act on a threat include the following:

• Clues in the form of subtle threats, boasts, innuendoes, or ultimatums
• Low tolerance for frustration
• Depression
• Alienation
• Difficulty managing anger
• Dramatic changes in behavior
• A turbulent parent-child relationship
• Access to weapons
• No monitoring of TV and Internet use
• Detachment from other students, teachers, and school activities
• A perception that the school tolerates disrespectful behavior
• Belief that the use of discipline in the school is not equitable to all students
• Intense and exclusive involvement with a peer group fascinated by violence or extremist beliefs

The report emphasizes that these traits are not a means to predict violent behavior before it occurs. Rather, the list is intended only for use in evaluating a student once a threat has been made. A student who shows consistent problems in all four of these areas is more likely to carry out a violent act.

So what can schools and communities do to prevent violence? According to the FBI, it is vital for schools to have a consistent and effective threat management system. Students, staff and parents need assurance that every threat, no matter how seemingly harmless, will be dealt with in an appropriate and timely way. This will increase the community's trust in the safety of our schools as well as deter future threats of any kind.

A central part of the system should be a threat assessment coordinator. This is the person to whom all threats are reported as soon as they are discovered. The school might choose the principal, another administrator, or a school psychologist, and must ensure that this person receives proper training in threat assessment. The threat assessment coordinator should have the authority to make quick decisions, and implement the school's emergency response plan if warranted.

Our schools can also help to prevent school violence by finding ways to encourage students to alert authorities or parents about threatening behavior in other students. Peer assistance groups may help students to break the "code of silence." Schools could also distribute a list of contacts on whom students or parents can call at any time to report disturbing behavior, and could produce public service announcements encouraging the use of these contacts.

Another program schools could develop is one aimed at helping parents to recognize when their child may be showing warning signs of violent behavior. Educating parents about what to look for and where to get help would encourage their involvement in the prevention of school violence.

Teachers can also do their part by forming student assistance programs, in which teachers come together to discuss students who they perceive are having difficulty in school or at home. All teachers and staff should be familiar with their school's threat assessment system and know what to do if trouble arises.

An event like the Columbine shooting may leave us feeling helpless to prevent such tragedies in our schools. But the FBI report makes clear that there are steps which parents, teachers, schools and a concerned community can take to help prevent school violence.

The information contained in this article was compiled from the FBI report "The School Shooter: A Threat Assessment Perspective," with permission by author Mary Ellen O' Toole, Ph.D, Supervisory Special Agent Federal Bureau of Investigations. For the complete 46 page report, go to www. FBI.gov/.

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