Prevention vs. Post-Mortem, literally…

Ben Daniels

For years I have been relating to people a cartoon I saw a long time ago, and I apologize in advance to the creator whose name I cannot recall… I think it was in the New Yorker magazine. It had two panels…the first depicted a horrible car accident, with a bystander saying, “Better call the Uh-oh Squad”. The second showed several official types standing around the crushed cars, with badges saying “Uh-oh Squad”, wringing their hands with worried faces, and sad faces, saying “uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh”.

As a metaphor for this discussion, both that cartoon and the recent school shooting in Red Lake make the point. Know that this school was almost a model for what the prevailing experts on school safety consider to be a “safe” school. Metal detectors, barbed wire surrounding the school (possibly overkill, but they were trying)… trained security officers (one, unarmed, killed at the security barrier while trying to talk the shooter down, giving the other, to whom he may have been related, time to implement the “lock-down” plan, which saved at least 16 students); teachers and students learning about and practicing for emergencies; teachers who had the presence of mind to act positively to implement the plan during this emergency; students who called 911 and started what most agree was a textbook emergency response by law enforcement and related agencies, culminating in the neutralization of the threat (the shooter, trapped in a classroom, killed himself). In addition, the school system seemed to have a working support system in terms of counseling, peer groups, and outreach programs such as a Homebound program that the shooter himself was already involved in (having been earlier suspended for an infraction).

In fact, several months before, the shooter, a truly baby-faced kid of 16, had been the subject of investigation about making a threat against the school.

Uh-oh.

It is said that he was cleared of this charge, and even related on his posting to a Neo-Nazi website he frequented, that he was glad he had been cleared. By the way, he alternately used the screen names “angel of death” in German, or NativeNazi (he was a Native American, of the Chippewa tribe). A Native American kid posting to a Neo-Nazi website? Uh-oh.

No one bought him the guns, like at Columbine. His grandfather, with whom he lived (and then killed, along with the grandfather’s wife, before he went to the school) was a retired police officer, who had guns at home, apparently unsecured, available to a kid with serious and apparent emotional problems (uh-oh)… a kid known to be bullied and mistreated by other kids at school (uh-oh)… known to wear clothing and other accessories that made him “stick-out” in a negative-esteem manner (uh-oh)… his father committed suicide, which haunted this kid, and his mother was brain-damaged and hospitalized from an auto accident (uh-oh)… known to make anti-social comments (uh-oh), known to threaten to kill himself (uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh)…

The experts can provide lists of hundreds of behaviors that indicate potential for school violence. Taken alone and out of context, the FBI is right when it concludes that "…such lists, publicized by the media, can end up unfairly labeling many nonviolent students as potentially dangerous or even lethal. In fact, a great many adolescents who will never commit violent acts will show some of the behaviors or personality traits included on the list." More to the point, however, is this… what is the point of identifying these “signs” if there is no effort made to prevent the behavior these signs suggest may occur in the future?

Ever hear of Marshfield, Massachusetts, in this context? Probably not… because what happened there does not make the news the way the Red Lake incident, Columbine, and so many others, did. Marshfield High School students, overhearing a few of their peers fantasizing about a massacre at their school, told an adult they trusted. The result? With effective coordination, law enforcement agents found names of specifically targeted teachers and students, maps of the school (exits to be blocked), lists of guns and ammunition to buy, bomb-making instructions, and evidence of a bomb test (the forerunner event we look for to assess commitment)… two teens were charged with various related crimes, including conspiracy to commit murder. No “uh-oh’s” here… and there are many such stories.

Why is it more important to make more noise about the success of an intervention than about the failure of security? When kids hear about the failure of security, they become prone to depression, and often feel desperate and helpless… sure signs of potential future aggression, and resort to self-help (bringing weapons to school, for example). Do you know that most kids that take weapons to school do so out of fear that they will have to defend themselves; it is not to initiate aggression. But, when kids hear about the success of an intervention, when a student is rewarded for telling an adult about a problem and it gets resolved, when they believe there is a system, and they get to participate in it, and know it will work, then they feel safer, more secure, and they prefer to make use of the system, rather than use self-help.

Prevention vs. post-mortem, literally. Are we really satisfied to review the horrible event (school shooting, terrorist bombing, etc.) content in the knowledge that we reacted as we were trained to do, that we managed the crisis with as little death and destruction as possible (yeah, but look at how many we saved…), and that we killed the shooter? Or… would we rather reflect back on the situation later, realizing what a horrible disaster we avoided, and how we saved this kid, and all the other kids he or she might have made victims? Which one of these choices really deserves to be called a celebration?

School violence is a highly preventable scenario. To do so requires the willingness (making this issue a priority), the time (for education and training), the budget (enough to adequately fund a serious, workable and effective program), and the resources (networking the school staff, students, parents, law enforcement and the community at large). The most difficult part is acknowledging that there is a problem in the first place.

These incidents, like any terrorist incident, are almost never impulsive. Preparatory behavior has been observed, plans have been made, someone has been told, someone already knows it might happen, practice has taken place, equipment has been acquired (or plans made for acquisition); these are almost always known to others, who, unfortunately, due to lack of awareness and/or training, either don’t recognize what they see or hear as being a sign, or don’t care to know. The FBI calls this “leakage”, the conscious or unconscious actions that reveal future plans. At Chameleon, we refer to this as one of many “suspicion indicators”.

“Post-mortem” has a specific meaning in the security community; it refers to a debriefing after an event, openly and honestly discussing what happened, without blame and/or repercussion, in an effort to identify and learn from any mistakes that may have been made in responding to an event. But here I use the term literally, and in its medico-legal or forensic meaning. Picking apart the dead body to discovery the cause of death… what comfort is there in counting the dead and wounded, and finding out how they were killed and injured? And, this exercise never helps to prevent the next event. It only solidifies the fact that there was a failure to adequately protect the victims from harm. That, to us in the professional business of security and safety, and to the caretakers of our children, should be unacceptable.

There is a method for prevention that works… we teach a program nation-wide that deals with these problems in an effective manner. We train our clients to create and implement a system for detection of security threat, then employ methods of intervention and follow-up. It is applied to many security environments, and can be especially effective for schools of all categories. There is only one factor that keeps it from being effectively employed, and that is the failure of the client, be they a school, business or government, to fully commit… to time, to training, to budget and to priority.

In the final analysis, at least for this discussion, it is important to remember this… the psychology of the vast majority of perpetrators of school violence as we are discussing it here is quite similar; almost repetitive. No matter what form the note left behind, or the behavior leading to the event, or the interview after, takes, they all say the same thing, one way or another… “I feel invisible”… “I need you to listen to me”… “I need you to pay attention to me”… “I have real problems no one is taking seriously”… “I am frustrated and can’t find a way out”… “I am lonely”… “I need help”. Uh-oh.

Just like with the problem of terrorism we deal with on a daily basis, not dealing with the core problems that engender these behaviors only guarantee that these events will continue.

When we discuss the nature of violence that children do to themselves (“cutting”, suicide… school shooters often kill themselves last), and/or to others, we must talk about issues of self-esteem and self-worth (among others, of course). When kids lack these in a significant way, as a result of the various ways that others, most often their loved ones, contribute to and cause this perception in the child, they no longer care what happens to them. Children believe that they are worthy of love, and often hope against all reality that they are loved. When they finally come to believe that in reality they are truly not loved, when they lose hope, when that final point of no return is reached, they often either commit suicide, do other damage to themselves, or commit what we have come to know as “school violence”.

No matter how practical or effective a prevention program may be, as a society we will continue to be afflicted with this problem until competing values and priorities are resolved in favor of addressing, in a meaningful and pro-active manner, the core issues that lead to violence perpetrated by children. This means learning about how to enrich their lives, to support them, to keep them and make them feel safe, and to show them they are respected, cared for, and loved. These factors are more important than any security or awareness program can ever be.

We incorporate all of these issues in our school security training seminars and other courses. If you want to learn more, please contact Chameleon Associates about our security training and awareness programs.

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