Schooled in Fear: Lessons Learned about Keeping Students and Staff Safe
188
Schooled in Fear: Lessons Learned about Keeping Students and Staff Safe
188Hardcover
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781475829808 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 04/26/2017 |
| Pages: | 188 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.26(w) x 9.36(h) x 0.73(d) |
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CHAPTER 1
School Shootings by Students
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold did not plan a school shooting. Their original plan was to blow up 600 of their friends and others. Their carefully laid plan to do that, cold-bloodedly dubbed NBK for Natural Born Killers, in the works for over a year, failed. Instead, they shot up the school, which resulted in thirteen deaths that day (twelve students and one teacher).
It happened in Littleton, Colorado, in unincorporated Jefferson County. It was April 20, 1999, though they originally planned it for the April 19 anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing to outdo that catastrophe. The killers, Harris (described later as a cold, calculating, homicidal psychopath) and Klebold (described later as hotheaded, depressive, and suicidal), were originally thought to be goths, loners, and victims of bullying. After their original plan failed, they went on their shooting spree, exchanging gunfire with police, and then committed suicide in the school library. This one tragic event changed the way schools and school safety have been viewed ever since.
OVERVIEW AND RECENT HISTORY
School shootings are very rare, contrary to popular opinion and the often overwhelming media focus. Fewer than 1 percent of homicides of school-age children happen at school. According to the 2013 National Crime Victimization Survey, the chance of a student dying in a car accident is 575 times greater than being killed at school. Only about one in two million children who die, die by homicide or suicide at school each year. This compares to victimization rates of thirty-three thefts and twenty-two violent crimes per one thousand students.
While these statistics illustrate that other kinds of problems in American schools are far more common than school shootings, the high-profile shootings that have occurred in schools over the past twenty years have resulted in increased fear among students, parents, and educators. The impact of the media coverage of high-profile tragedies remains, as seen in the large percentage of American parents who remain concerned about their children's safety at school. Due to this fear, it is estimated that $4.9 billion will be spent on school security by 2017, compared to $2.7 billion in 2012.
School fatalities were on the rise in the late 1980s. They peaked in the 1990s. By then there was an alarming rise in school shootings in rural and suburban schools where they were once considered just a problem in urban schools with gangs. This came after a particularly deadly increase in youth crime in general. It, too, had risen in the 1980s. Juvenile homicide more than doubled. It peaked in the early 1990s and reversed by the end of the decade. Many believe that this increase was because of the proliferation of crack cocaine, gangs and guns.
News media accounts tended to concentrate on the apparent spate of school shootings occurring during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The often 24/7 coverage of these incidents contributed to the general impression that school shootings were an alarming and increasing social problem. During this time, Princeton University professor John DiIulio described the rise of a new breed of offenders, the super-predator. The super-predator was described as a youth who had no respect for human life and no sense of the future.
This term, although now discredited, spread rapidly and resulted in much legislation focused on prosecuting more juveniles as adults and incarcerating them for longer periods. These changes had no effect on juvenile crime, however, and treating youth as adults and extending the punishments turned out to be no deterrent. According to Cornell (2006), youths were more likely to commit future crimes than their peers as they solidified their identities as criminals.
In 1994, Congress passed the Gun Free and Drug Free Schools Act. This required schools to expel for one year students in possession of firearms at schools. It allowed modification on a case-by-case basis, but this was not always the case. Cornell describes a Harvard (2000) report on zero tolerance, which concluded that it permeated our schools and employed a brutally strict disciplinary approach that embraced harsh punishment over education. By 1997, fully 80 percent of schools had zero tolerance policies on the books, yet as an example of the policy gone haywire, only 5 percent of students expelled under these policies possessed a weapon.
As a result of the Columbine tragedy, zero tolerance policies became almost universal. Two decades of research now conclude that those policies were not only extreme, but ineffectual as well. During the heyday of zero tolerance, 43 percent of students who were suspended were punished for insubordination, indicating how much schools went overboard with these policies. These policies have also had a proven, disproportionate, and negative impact on disadvantaged minority students.
There are documented cases where even kindergartners were being expelled for bringing little plastic toy figures holding guns. In fact, both the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American Psychological Association (APA) have issued statements effectively condemning zero tolerance policies, given their harmful effects. They have instead called for students to be disciplined on a case-by-case basis and in a developmentally appropriate manner.
RESEARCH ON SCHOOL SHOOTERS
This section reviews three key studies done on school shootings and lessons learned: (1) the Newman (2004) study of rampage shootings; (2) Langman's (2009a) study of ten school shooters; and (3) the 2002 Department of Education (DOE)/U.S. Secret Service Safe School Initiative analysis of thirty-seven incidents with its recommendations.
Newman (2004) Study of Rampage Shootings
One highly publicized type of school shooting is the rampage shooting. One of the major characteristics of rampage shootings, according to Newman (2004), is that the target is generally symbolic in nature. What matters in those instances is not exacting revenge on particular people, but making a statement with violence: it may not matter who the ultimate victims are. School rampage shootings are thought to be distinct from other forms of violence because of the relatively safe rural setting in which most of these events have occurred and the lack of specified individual target.
Rampage shootings are among those that have attracted the most public attention. These are expressive, nontargeted attacks on a school institution. An institutional attack takes place on a public stage before an audience and is committed by a member or former member of the institution. It involves multiple victims, some chosen for their symbolic significance or at random. This final condition signifies that it is the organization, not the individuals, that is important, say these researchers.
Newman interviewed more than 150 individuals impacted by two different school shootings. They developed a comprehensive, multipronged theory of school shootings. Their theory consists of individual-level and school-level factors. In particular, they present four necessary but not sufficient factors that combine to produce school shootings:
• The individual views himself/herself as a social outcast
• The individual has a psychosocial problem, but not necessarily mental illness
• Cultural scripts that support violence as problem solving must be available
• The school must have poor surveillance systems to prevent potential shooters and guns must be easily accessible.
Their analysis emphasized the rage that fills school shooters and the fact that it is harbored by many young people today, especially boys who, they say, are on the losing end of what they call "the fierce competing adolescent for respect and masculine identity."
This study concluded that there are no policy solutions that reduce the risk of a school shooting to zero, but that the following issues need to be addressed to reduce the risk:
• The fragmentation of documentation within schools (e.g., in the discipline office, the social worker's desk, the teacher's file), which leave no one with the whole picture of threat or danger
• Team teaching, which has the potential to enhance and deepen teacher-student relationships, enabling better identification of problems
• Parent-teacher relationships that address both behavior and academics, to support parents in supporting their children
• Mental health staff and not metal detectors, as identification and prevention and treatment are more effective than punitive measures
• The presence of school security officers who can build positive relationships with students and can be sources of information on prevention and behavior management
• Making sure every student is connected to at least one adult in the building, as such trusting and caring relationships can be protective buffers for students
• Rewarding more than just sports participation and providing a range of activities so that all students have a place in the school and a way to bond with others and feel a sense of belonging.
Langman's (2009a) Study of School Shooters
Based on his work as a psychologist and his study of ten school shooters, Langman developed a typology of the school shooter. He found that school shooters were either psychopathic, psychotic, or traumatized:
Psychopathic — Langman describes Eric Harris as having the characteristics of this profile. He was cold, calculating, and manipulative. Though he was good looking, intelligent, and had friends, he felt superior to everyone. He was sadistic and narcissistic. He felt entitled and full of rage. He preyed upon his partner Klebold's weaknesses to fuel his rage and execute his plan. Here is an example of his writings and thought processes:
WWII, Viet Nam, Duke and Doom all mixed up together ... a revolution to fuck up things as much as we can ... I want to leave a lasting impression on the world ... if there is any way in this fucked up universe we can come back as ghosts ... we will haunt the life out of anyone who blames anyone besides me and V (Dylan's nickname was Vodka) ... we will move to some island somewhere and if there isn't such a place, we will hijack a hell of a lot of bombs and crash a plane into NYC with us inside firing away as we go down ... just something to cause more devastation.
— Eric Harris's journal entries (n.d.)
Psychotic — Dylan Klebold, on the other hand, was depressed, paranoid, and suicidal. Though he too had friends, he described a tremendous amount of rejection and anger in his journals. He is thought to have had some schizophrenic traits (e.g., disorganized thinking patterns). He had an extremely poor self-image, and was described as the follower to Harris' lead. Here are some of his thoughts:
Farther and farther distant ... that's what's happening ... me & everything that zombies consider dear ... just images, not life. Soon I will be at peace I hope ... I've always had a thing for the past — how it reacts to the present & the future — or rather vice versa. I wonder how/when I got so fucked up ... Sadness seems infinite, & the shell of happiness shines around. Yet the true despair overcomes it in this lifetime ... The pain multiplies infinitely never stops. Yet I'm here, STILL alone, still in pain.
— Dylan Klebold's journal entries (n.d.)
Langman says that the psychotics he studied realized that they were misfits. They struggled socially and felt isolated. Dylan Klebold had fallen desperately in love, for example, but felt he could never achieve intimacy. Langman says they raged against the cruelty of their fates, of being born impaired, and believed they could never be like other people.
Traumatized — In March 2005, Jeffrey Wiese went on a rampage shooting in Bemidji, Minnesota. He acted alone, though he had discussed the plan with his best friend and cousin. He entered his school and killed five students, a teacher, and a security guard, then shot himself. Jeffrey had been verbally and physically abused by an alcoholic mother and many of her boyfriends. His father had committed suicide during a standoff with police. His mother suffered an auto accident and brain damage, which left her in a nursing home. He was then in and out of the foster care system and had previously made several suicide attempts. He had no indication of either psychosis or psychopathy.
My mother would hit me with anything she could get her hands on ... would tell me I was a mistake, and she would say so many things that it's hard to deal with them or think of them without crying ... I have friends, but I'm basically a loner inside a group of loners ... I'm excluded from anything and everything they do. I'm never invited. I don't even know why they consider me a friend or I them ... right about now I feel as low as I ever have ... I'm starting to regret sticking around. I should've taken the razor blade express last time around. Well, whatever, man.
— Jeffrey Wiese's journal entries (2005)
Trauma's consequences, Langman says, include anxiety, depression, hostility, shame, despair, and hopelessness. These are features of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). People who are traumatized often have a reduced capacity for feeling emotions and often feel isolated from others. They may feel constantly threatened and have mild symptoms of paranoia and hypervigilance. They often become self-destructive through substance abuse, self-mutilation, or social suicidal urges. And sometimes, as in this case, they become violent.
Physical and sexual abuse, often the causes of childhood trauma, can have devastating consequences, including anxiety, rage, depression, and suicide. Trauma affects one's identities and relationships. Due to the trauma, these children may have a sense of being damaged and have trouble relating to others. Their ability to trust people is affected, as is their ability to feel love and connected to others. Their worlds were unpredictable.
Parental alcoholism and bad tempers meant that the traumatized boys Langman studied never knew what each day would bring. They moved from one family member to another and back again or from one foster home to another. Stability was unknown. Some endured cruel, degrading sexual abuse. They lost parents to separation, jail, and death. They were depressed to the point of contemplating suicide. Life was overwhelming. Life was unfair and the world was cruel and people could not be trusted. On top of it all, they were angry. Angry at life. Angry for living in hell. Despite all these they were not crazy or evil, just wounded, he says. They were so badly wounded, that they sought a way to end their misery.
Langman says that the factors that contribute to school shootings are a complex mix of genetics, family, environment, personality traits, psychiatric symptoms, and peer relationships. More than three-fourths of the shooters he studied had difficulty coping with a major change or loss of status prior to the event. More than half had a history of feeling extreme depression and nearly 75 percent threatened or tried to commit suicide.
Langman found that nine of the ten shooters suffered from deep depression and suicidal thoughts. He says it is that combination of suicidal and homicidal thoughts, which is particularly dangerous — and hard to prevent — if the killers do not care what happens to them. The correlates he found between shooting and violence and psychotics included being male, substance abuse, lack of compliance, and taking medication.
Langman describes what all ten school shooters he studied had in common:
1. Lack of empathy: due to reasons such as anger, feelings of victimization, desperate insecurity, hallucinations, emotional impairment, or trauma, which leads one to not feel anything, just numbness
2. Existential rage
3. Existential anguish — social deficits, psychotic symptoms, history of suicidal thoughts
4. Extreme reactivity — overreaction to normal peer activities due to emotional instability and vulnerable identities: psychopaths had fragile narcissism; psychotics had poor social skills and paranoia; traumatics had hypervigilance, PTSD, and emotional instability. All had depression and self-loathing and were carrying a storehouse of resentment built up over years. They had chronic bitter exaggeration and distorted memories of past suffering
5. Shame, anger, and failure of manhood — they had fragile male identities; like Newman, Langman found that this was a powerful factor among school shooters
6. Fantasizing makes the task become easier to execute and turn off one's feelings. (Langman, 2009b, p. 11)
U.S.–DOE–Secret Service (2002) Study
The study by the DOE and the Secret Service (2002) identified thirty-seven incidents of targeted school-based attacks, committed by forty-one individuals over a twenty-five-year period. It defined school shooting as the intentional killing of at least three victims in a single incident by those under nineteen years old. The report concluded, as did Newman, that shootings at school seemed to be a general kind of revenge against an undifferentiated target. It also found that before they occurred, the shooters had told someone about their plan and that they displayed some behavior that caused others to be concerned about them. And in fully three-fourths of the cases, other students knew about the plan.
(Continues…)
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