NSU Horizons Fall 2007

horizons 25 Increase parental supervision and skills A number of adolescents are leading “secret lives” that involve sex, drugs, and reckless behaviors while their parents are looking the other way. One teenager commented to me recently that his relationship with his parents was based on denial because if they paid attention to his behavior, they would be worried. We need to bring back the family meal where families sit around the table and talk to each other. Reduce media violence The parents in Paducah who lost children in the school shooting formed a foundation and sued both the maker of a violent video game and the maker of a violent movie that depicted a school shooting. The principal in Paducah told me that the perpetrator had never fired a real gun in his life before the shooting, but was deadly accurate because he played point and shoot video games for hours. In my own first testimony before Congress, the head of the committee asked, “How do we spot a troubled child in schools?” He implied there was some great mystery to this. My reply was that we spot troubled children every day, but simply do not have the mental health resources to help them. I was asked to be the main speaker to 3,500 Columbine parents after the tragic shootings. My primary message was, “Reach, don’t preach, and be there to listen to your child. Do not hesitate to get professional help for them.” A parent stated that the shooting was motivated by racism and asked what would be done about it at Columbine. My response was, “There is so much we do not know about the motivation of the perpetrators and may never know. I believe racism is a problem in all schools and communities, and we must work to ensure that everyone gets along.” One significant development since the Columbine shoot- ing in 1999 was a U.S. Secret Service study of 37 school shootings, which resulted in significant findings. The study was released twice, in 2000 and 2001, but was largely ignored by schools. The study found no accurate profile of a school shooter, but the following commonalities regarding the perpetrators were revealed, which has tremendous implica- tions for prevention. • Revenge was the motive. • The shootings were not impulsive acts, as they were planned over weeks or even months. • Almost all of these perpetrators talked about what they were going to do to classmates. One of them, at his trial, said he told 40 friends of his violent plans and thought one of them would have tried to stop him. • The majority of these perpetrators had access to guns and were fascinated by guns, bombs, and violence portrayed in the media. • The majority of these perpetrators were actually suicidal. Many of them died by suicide at the crime scene or stated their shooting was supposed to culminate as “suicide-by-cop.” • The majority of these perpetrators were victims of severe bullying. These findings have obvious prevention implications, including ending the conspiracy of silence that allows homicidal and suicidal threats to go unreported to authori- ties, as well as implementing programs to reduce bullying and prevent suicide. My assessment has been that most of the prevention emphasis at schools has focused on hardware measures such as more police presence and surveillance cameras. I am not opposed to those measures. But, I reference the school in Red Lake, Minnesota, with all of its state-of- the-art hardware measures, because it was the scene of the second-worst K–12 school shooting in our history. Non-hardware measures, such as adding mental health professionals, knowing every student well, and teaching problem solving and anger management, are also important. My experience has been that school safety is really an inside job that requires a commitment from students first, then the faculty and the community. Everyone must be alert, understand their role and the importance of working as a team, and share information, because there are no simple solutions to school safety. I believe strongly that one violent death on a school campus in the United States is unaccept- able, but K–12 schools and college campuses are still the safest places for young people. The vast majority of murders of young people actually occur in their own homes or in the community, and we must work on prevention in those settings, as well. n scott poland, ed.d., is a faculty member of nsu’s center for psychological studies and chair of the national emergency assistance team. “Verbatim” is a regular feature of Horizons magazine that presents the unique personal stories of the students, alumni, and faculty and staff members of Nova Southeastern University. Send your story ideas to nsumag@nova.edu .