Know the Terror Within Our Schools

Knowing the Terror within Our Schools

SOC 305 Crime & Society
Instructor: Lynn Ma
October 8, 2012

Abstract
Terrorism is not new and causes about one percent of deaths of school age victims every year but with media it has now become and seen as one of the scariest threats in the United States today. Learning how to prevent terrorism within a school setting has proven difficult as there is no way to profile who will or will not commit an act of terror in such a setting. There are key indicators to look at though that could possibly prevent such an act. Communication seems to be one of the most important tools and yet it seems to be the one that has in the past not been used mainly due the lack of knowledge between schools and staff, staff and students, parents and staff, parents and students, and student to student. Involving everyone in the school, parents, law enforcement, and the community are important to helping in the prevention of school violence. Keywords: terrorism, schools, shootings

Knowing the Terror within Our Schools
Terror in our schools is not anything new with the first recorded shooting incident happening November 2, 1853 in Louisville, Kentucky. This was when a young man decided to shoot the ‘schoolmaster’ because he thought he had abused his brother the previous day, (Ward, 2002). Had the teacher or anyone else knew or had any indicators of what might possibly happen maybe this could have been prevented. The problem then even as it is now is that it is hard to spot the indicators that would give school authorities a way to prevent the terror and devastation faced afterwards.
Knowing is the key word when it comes to spotting a chance of a violent act happening within any school and with larger the schools the greater and considerably more colossal effort and techniques have to be first learned and then implemented. According to Law Enforcement Intelligence (Carter, 2004), there are five key areas that are important when trying to detect a possible threat of violence. They are as follows: (a) Know how to observe, (b) Know what is suspicious, (c) Know how to report, (d) Know what to report, (e) Know what happens next and as Thomas Heffelfinger, United States attorney for the District of Minnesota put it, “We know that school violence can occur anywhere, from a suburban school in Colorado, to a rural school in Central Minnesota”. This means we all have to be ever watchful especially since there is no real way to work up a profile for a shooter within a school since according to the Secret Service there is no such thing as a “typical school shooter.”
One of the first things a school needs to consider installing is a Threat Assessment Process. This helps the school and local law enforcement accumulate, assess and classify material and reports of potential attacks at the school. After appraising the threat or threats adapt methods or plans that block and or decrease the risk of such violence or threats. This is important as rarely are attacks spontaneous or impulsive. Most are caused by a buildup of emotions brought on by other happenings that have led up to an emotional outburst, in other words a type of retribution by a victim or a person that feels victimized by either the establishment, in this case a school, or people within the establishment. Ultimately in a school attack there are those, usually classmates, that know the person and what has happened to make this person so irate and some may have even heard from the person or rumors that this person is planning an attack. The problem here is that we have all made veil remarks about wanting revenge on something or someone at some point in our lives but rarely does it go beyond words and no one wants to believe that anyone that they know could do this and no one wants to believe that these things could happen where they live. It is for these reasons that classmates never think that it could happen to them or their school until too late when the unthinkable has happened. This is probably the most important part of the threat assessment that schools need to talk and teach to their students, staff and even parents.
Staff, Students and Parents alike should have a complete understanding of what Terrorism is. It is surprising that some people do not know that bulling is a type of terrorism for it is intended to spark fear, intimidate or even force a person to submit or face punishment. Terrorism can be described as disruptive behavior or violent acts with the intention of causing fear and intimidation. The Department of defense describes it as the “Calculated use of violence or the threat of violence to cause fear, coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are political, religious, or ideological. Students, since they are usually the first to know, teachers and other staff members need to be well educated about the process and students need to be made to feel comfortable that if they report something that they fear could be a warning or threat against themselves, another student, a staff member or their school, that they will be heard without being talked to in a dismissive fashion and that what they have said will be investigated and their names will never be mentioned during the investigation. Children especially teens do not always think that adults listen to them or that adults will think bad about them or think what they have to say is unimportant and because of this they often fail to talk to adults so it is extremely important that if approached that the student be made to feel comfortable, safe and important. It may be at times that the things a student says are not of use but it is important to check into them before dismissing them in order to possible thwart an act of violence.
Those that commit violent attacks are more likely to tell a classmate for they seldom tell the person or their target and they tend to act out in some other form prior to an act of violence. These outbursts are often a call or demonstration for help so it is important to watch for the indicators. A student that has been picked on, made fun of or bullied can be feeling depression or showings signs of withdrawing from classmates. This may be the student who seems to try to hide in the shadows or blend in with surroundings rather than be noticed. They like to sit in the back of a room, slouching as far down in hopes that no one will notice them. Sometimes these students end up being targeted for whatever reason. It could be from the way they dress to not understanding an assignment and or low grades. In other words sometimes a person in authority could feel like an attacker just the same as another student and either or both could be the trigger to an act of violence without ever knowing it. Many times it is a buildup of things not only at school but possible situations at home such as abuse, money problems and divorce which can affect their in school behaviors. It is important to have someone that a student can talk to in school about anything and it is important that the person being talked to listen for any danger indicators and be able to offer help to the child and at times be ready to step in and say this is dangerous and this has to be done now, even if this means notifying authorities and possible medical help without the fear of violating a confidence. This would mean that anytime a student talks they should be made aware that anything they say will be kept private unless there is a possible threat to others or by self infliction.
If a possible threat is received it is vital to find out as much information as possible about the suspects. Keep an open mind and look for ways of validating or invalidating the information before dismissing a possible threat. It was discovered that most violent attacks in schools, that the perpetrator had previously used some type of weapon. They could have gone hunting trips or had some other kind of experience around weapons. Many times the attacker has access to weapons as well. At this point it is just as important to educate the parents of students the importance of keeping all firearms and other weapons locked away as well as how important it is to teach their child safety about any weapons they may have in their homes.
Some of the ways this could be done is by involving not only the staff but students and parents as well. Parents can help form the policies that make their children’s school and by keeping the parents involved it helps to make them aware of what is happening in the schools and their community and makes them aware of problems and other solving tactics used by other schools around them or across the country. Educating parents on things such as depression in children or other behaviors such as deviancy or angry outburst will help parents to see possible problems from their own child and give them a chance to possibly help their child through the problems before anything more serious happens. Making sure that a parent has a point of contact within the school their child attends someone they can talk to and tell them what they see is happening and asking for help in finding out if something is happening in school that could be causing the problems and get suggestions on how to help a child through trying times. Involving a group of volunteer students that gather to talk about things happening in the school and finding out students points of views on things helps to keep students involved and more interested in what is going on in their school and classmates.
School staff are one of the most important tools in a school especially teachers, counselors and principals. These are the people that see, hear and speak to the students approximately eight hours a day, five days a week, and nine months a year.
These people are the ones students see sometimes more than their own parents during the school year and these are people that students should feel that they can trust. This is not always the case though because unfortunately some personnel do not always know how to speak to children or teens. This may be because children go through so many different things as they grow and mature things such puberty, dating, those awkward years of growing, pimples, glasses and braces. These things affect a child’s concept of themselves and many times they are the very things that cause bulling among their peers. Children of all ages can be cruel to one another and it is important to listen carefully as students pass by and to watch for possibly bulling going on in order to help prevent some of the violence that has infected our schools all across the nation. School personnel need to learn the correct language when speaking to children because children take things to heart and not many know how to brush off cutting remarks and they tend to hold on to the hurt until they exploded in some way or another. Sometimes it is just words but other times, the ones we dread the most are the times of violence. This could mean a physical assault against an object or a person depending on the person or the child will depend on the type of ways he or she may act out. School staff need to know which words to avoid when address a child and they need to as much about the child they are addressing as possible in order to give them valuable information about how to talk to that child. This could be gathered by talking to the student in a non threatening atmosphere and without the use of a threatening tone. Children like to please but give up if they feel the person talking to them does not really care about them or what is going on with them. If a child feels like they are being backed in a corner they will usually find a way of fighting back. It is the need for survival or the feeling of impending doom that makes one either try harder or take as many out with them as they go. Bullying is a major problem in and out of schools, now days bulling does not mean that a student is just accosted during school hours, no now that we have so much more technology students face bullying on the web. The problem with this is that it magnifies the bulling because where it once was a small group of people it involves as many people that can be messaged, tweeted, or shared with. Many times there are those that may not even know the person being tormented, they just join in for the fun of it because as I previously stated children can be quite cruel to one another. This maybe because of low self esteem and if the make other look at someone else then maybe they won’t see their own flaws. This is why it is important to teach children of all ages exactly what bulling is and what it involves. They need to know how to speak up against it whether it is happening to them or another and they need to know how important it can be for them to report it no matter who it is happening to.
As more and more violence seems to erupt in our schools we have seen the need to insert at first security officers but now police officers to help insure the safety of our schools. The biggest problem with this has been funding or the lack of funding. Some schools especially in larger cities have even began to use things such as hand held metal detectors or even metal detectors that are installed in the door ways of the school. These things can be time consuming as well as costly as well as cause a detrimental atmosphere in a school. Police officers can be the most helpful if they offer advice and give information that help students to be aware of their surroundings which include strange and or possible violent threats or behaviors of classmates or even adults. Police officers or SROs as they are called within the schools are there to improve and compliment the safety in and around a school, reduce delinquency of juveniles and help to ensure attendance of the students, to aide in the construction of trust among teachers, staff, students and parents of a school. They are there to teach safety and improve the relationships of schools and cities. It seems that there is more of a feeling of safety with officers rather than metal detectors or other such devices. All of these things help to provide programs that are essential for positive sand supportive environment within all schools. People should also be aware that violence in schools is not done by students alone as we saw in the hostage taking of six girls and the eventual death of one at the hand of the hostage taker, Duane Roger Morrison age 53 of Bailey, Colorado in September of 2006 (B. Dedman of NBC News). Morrison who had been a student at the school many years before had spoke to his wife about wanting revenge for something that had happened when he went to school there decades before. He had spoken of his childhood incident and of molestation he had committed and apparently feared he would repeat the action again. No one said anything until it was too late and no one believed that this could happen until it was too late not even his wife whom he had told.
What we have learned about school shootings is that they all involve an incident that has happened prior to the act of violence. In most cases some one or several others knew that something was going to happen before it happened. One of the most surprising things we have learned is that often times it is the person we least expect that becomes the terrorist. We have learned that detection is increasingly difficult and that the best prevention is our ears. It is learning how to take what we hear and know how and when to report it. It is through spreading that knowledge among School staff, parents and the student body so that everyone is involved in the process of keeping all safe within our schools.
No, terrorism in not something new to schools but it has increased. School terrorism maybe the cause of only one percent of depths among school age children, but most of think that even one deth is too many especially when we have the tools to prevent such a devastating act.

References
Cantor, D., Crosse, S., Hagen, C. A., Mason, M. J., Siler, A. J., & Glatz, A. V. (2002, August). A closer look at drug and violence prevention efforts in american schools: Report on the study on school violence and prevention. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/offices/OUS/PES/studies-school-violence/closer-look.pdf

Feln, R. A. D., Vossekkull, B., Pollack, W. S.,. D., Borum, R., P. D., Modzeleski, W., & Reddy, M., P. D. (2002). Threat assessment in schools: A guide to managing threatening situations and to creating safe school climates . UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE ANDUNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, Retrieved from http://www.secretservice.gov/ntac/ssi_guide.pdf

Fox, C., & Harding, D. J. (2005). School shootings as organizational deviance. Sociology of Education, 78(1), 69 - 97. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4148911

Heffelfinger, T. B. (2006). School safety: Lessons learned. Retrieved from http://www.justice.gov/usao/mn/downloads/schoolbrochure.pdf

Johnson, T. R. (2001). School sucks. College Composition and Communication, 52(4), 620 - 650. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/358700

Myrstol, B. A. (2010). Police in schools: Public perceptions. Alaska Justice Forum, 27(3), 1, 5-8. Retrieved from http://justice.uaa.alaska.edu/forum/27/3fall2010/a_sro.html

Suttles, G. D. (2006). Rampage: The social roots of school shootings by katherine s. newman. American Journal of Sociology, 111(4), 1219 -1221. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/502987

Ward, M. F. (2002). Full and authentic report of the testimony on the trial of matt. f. ward. Lexington, Kentucky: University of Kentucky. Retrieved from http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=kyetexts;cc=kyetexts;idno=b92-259-31825113;view=toc

References: Cantor, D., Crosse, S., Hagen, C. A., Mason, M. J., Siler, A. J., & Glatz, A. V. (2002, August). A closer look at drug and violence prevention efforts in american schools: Report on the study on school violence and prevention. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/offices/OUS/PES/studies-school-violence/closer-look.pdf Feln, R. A. D., Vossekkull, B., Pollack, W. S.,. D., Borum, R., P. D., Modzeleski, W., & Reddy, M., P. D. (2002). Threat assessment in schools: A guide to managing threatening situations and to creating safe school climates . UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE ANDUNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, Retrieved from http://www.secretservice.gov/ntac/ssi_guide.pdf Fox, C., & Harding, D. J. (2005). School shootings as organizational deviance. Sociology of Education, 78(1), 69 - 97. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4148911 Heffelfinger, T. B. (2006). School safety: Lessons learned. Retrieved from http://www.justice.gov/usao/mn/downloads/schoolbrochure.pdf Johnson, T. R. (2001). School sucks. College Composition and Communication, 52(4), 620 - 650. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/358700 Myrstol, B. A. (2010). Police in schools: Public perceptions. Alaska Justice Forum, 27(3), 1, 5-8. Retrieved from http://justice.uaa.alaska.edu/forum/27/3fall2010/a_sro.html Suttles, G. D. (2006). Rampage: The social roots of school shootings by katherine s. newman. American Journal of Sociology, 111(4), 1219 -1221. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/502987 Ward, M. F. (2002). Full and authentic report of the testimony on the trial of matt. f. ward. Lexington, Kentucky: University of Kentucky. Retrieved from http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=kyetexts;cc=kyetexts;idno=b92-259-31825113;view=toc