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School Violence Article

October 11, 2007

EmailPrintTalk BackRegisterWhat's This

School shooting in Cleveland: Is school discipline effective or enraging?

By Gary MacNamara
ETGI
Special to PoliceOne
Gunfire erupts at Ohio high school; 5 injured

Family members hug outside the SuccessTech Academy Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007, in Cleveland. A gunman opened fire Wednesday at the alternative school and three children were taken to a hospital, the mayor said. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Once again we in law enforcement can look back at the Final report of the School Safe Initiative from the United State Secret Service and the United State Department of Education from May 2002.

Among the key findings from the study of prior school violence, are the following that may have significant correlations to this recent shooting:

• Incidents of targeted violence at school are rarely sudden, impulsive acts.
• Prior to most incidents, other people knew about the attacker’s idea and/or plan to attack.
• Most attackers engaged in some behavior prior to the incident that caused others concern or indicated a need for help.a

As reports begin to develop from the Success Tech Academy, we learn the fourteen year old shooter was recently suspended from school and made statements raising the concern of fellow students.

The shooting death of a principal in Cazenovia Wisconsin in 2006 was committed by a student upset over discipline he had received for having tobacco. That shooter raised prior concern with friends when he reportedly said days before the shooting that the principal would not make it through homecoming planned for an upcoming weekend. 

As we all are fully aware and as recent events have confirmed, school violence is an unpredictable threat that is very hard to prevent.  We can however take steps to help us better prepare for and hopefully deter future violence. 

The days of suspending students and sending a note home to their parents is over. As these two events have shown, disciplined students may retaliate for punishment given them. In that case is it better or worse?

Punishment can, and often does disrupt the atmosphere or personality of a school.  Police and school officials have to understand the effect of that disruption to evaluate its effect on the atmosphere. Schools can—and should —notify law enforcement agencies of all suspended students. Schools should also evaluate the need for suspension follow-up, to assess any brewing threat the student may pose. Maybe daily contact with the suspended student or their parents is called for. Suspensinos may not be helping the problem.

Once again we should all also implement a Non-Participant Debrief Strategy to evaluate yesterday’s events through our own procedures to see what our own response to a similar event may be.

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