by Tad Shannon of The Register-Guard
Schools must adopt stringent security measures similar to airports if they want to avoid tragedies such Thursday’s shootings at Thurston High School, a University of Oregon authority on youth violence said.
“We have to stop the shooting before we can do anything meaningful about long-term prevention,” said Hill Walker, director of the UO Institute on Violence and Destructive Behavior. “This is the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“We are now into a different paradigm where we must get control of the problem. Then we can redouble efforts about prevention and intervention.”
Walker said schools should install metal detectors and search everyone who enters. All but one entrance to a school should be locked, he said, and the unlocked entrance should be guarded. Video cameras should be installed at all exits, he said.
“It’s expensive, it’s radical and it’s depressing, but we have to do it,” he said. “Right now there are thousands of people who are mentally disturbed enough to hijack a plane. There also are hundreds of students sitting in schools today who are so mentally disturbed and in such a state of rage and in need of attention that they are capable of doing this.”
For the past 30 years, Walker has devoted his career to studying and developing ways to prevent youth violence by focusing on intervention with young children. But Walker said Thursday’s incident convinced him that schools must adopt stringent security measures in the short run to stop the recent rash of school killings.
Since the beginning of the school year, there have been 32 school-related violent deaths in the United States, according to statistics compiled by the National School Safety Center, a California-based nonprofit group.
Walker said school shootings are likely to persist as long as they continue to lead the nightly news.
“Every time it happens, the spores are disseminated in the winds,” he said.
Walker said research has shown that it’s possible to identify a pool of children who are likely to go on to commit violent acts.
“The problem is predicting which one will bring a gun to school and start shooting,” he said.
More often than not, according to Charles Ewing of the State University of New York at Buffalo, the youthful killers can’t explain what caused them to pull the trigger.
“We want to hear them say, ‘Oh, I hated that teacher’ or something, but I don’t hear that from kids who kill,” said Ewing, a forensic psychologist and author of the 1991 book, “Why Kids Kill.” “What I hear is, ‘I don’t know.'”
“It’s more a sense of bewilderment than anything else. It’s an impulsive act.”
Ewing said any threats of violence by students should be taken seriously. He was incredulous upon learning that the suspect in the Thurston shootings, 15-year-old Kip Kinkel, was released into his parents’ custody after being arrested and suspended from school for possessing a stolen gun.
“What better predictor can you have that a kid’s going to be violent than bringing a gun to school?” he asked.
David Piercy, assistant to the superintendent of the Eugene School District, said the Thurston incident will prompt a community-wide discussion about school security.
“I don’t know the ultimate answer,” he said. “But we absolutely have to put a stop to the random killing that is going on.”
The Eugene district now has city police officers assigned to each of the district’s four high school attendance areas. Piercy said those officers will be stationed at each of the four high schools for the remainder of the week.
In addition, he said all principals have been asked to meet with their staffs to develop plans for helping students cope with Thursday’s tragedy.
Youth violence experts say that while each circumstance is unique, there are common traits running through most incidents.
“There are simply more guns in society and kids are less monitored now,” said Anthony Biglan, a psychologist and research scientist at Oregon Research Institute in Eugene. “Kids home alone are more likely to get into a variety of difficulties, including guns.”
John Reid, director of the Oregon Social Learning Center in Eugene, agreed that dramatic security measures are needed in schools, but he hopes that the root causes of violence don’t get ignored in the process. “Anti-social behavior is a very developmental phenomenon,” he said. “The roots start early in many cases.”
Reprinted with permission. Copyright 1997, The Register-Guard, www.registerguard.com.