With tears welling in his eyes and his voice cracking, the dejected teenager looked directly into the camera and offered some chilling words.
“In my life, it never seemed like anybody cared,” he said, tears sliding down his face. “Maybe if somebody [at school] had sat me down and talked to me, I would have opened up. It could have made a difference.”
Unfortunately, no one intervened before the troubled youngster went on a shooting spree that left two classmates dead and six others injured.
Officials with the U.S. Department of Education and the Secret Service, who showed the videotaped interview at a school safety conference Wednesday in the Palmer House Hilton, said such violence might be averted if students felt more comfortable turning to educators or police for help.
The conference marked the official launch of the government’s “Threat Assessment in Schools” manual, a booklet that tells schools how to identify and deal with students who might pose a risk of violence. More than 100 Midwest educators and law enforcement attended.
“This [manual] goes beyond metal detectors and guard dogs. It calls for some personalization, so we can pay attention to our children and how they are feeling,” said U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige. “What we’ve learned [from previous shootings] is there are things we can do beforehand. We don’t have to be innocent bystanders.”
The threat assessment guide was developed by the Secret Service and the Department of Education after the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School, where 13 people were gunned down. The two agencies analyzed 41 school shootings since 1974 and interviewed 10 shooters.
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Brian Vossekuil, with the Secret Service, said in most of the cases warning signs were present. In 80 percent of the killings, the shooters told other students or siblings about their intentions, but rarely told adults.
“An investigation by school or law enforcement may have been able to stop” the killings, he said.
The manual suggests schools create a safe environment for students by adopting policies against bullying, opening the lines of communication between teachers and students and dealing with potential threats on an individual basis.
If a student is identified as having potential to commit a violent act, then the school should gather information about the youngster’s social network, home situation and mental-health history. Officials might need to interview the student’s parents, friends and teachers.
Much of the information presented at the seminar is not new. A recent spate of high-profile schoolyard killings spurred educators and lawmakers across the country to adopt more aggressive policies to root out possible danger.
“It’s good information that can spur some districts to action, and it’s nice to see it all packaged together,” said Jack Dixon, a school safety consultant who works with three dozen districts in the Chicago area, including Waukegan public schools. “I wish it had offered more specifics, like how seriously should different types of threats be taken.”
Some of the most riveting information that came out of seminar was from videotaped interviews with schoolyard killers. When asked what a teacher could do to stop rampages, one killer said: “Try to get to know students. Talk to them. Pull them out of class. It doesn’t have to be about anything, just start a relationship with them.”