That Boy -- A Potential School Shooter

As a high school teacher, I have seen Him. He is the male student who has difficulty in establishing and maintaining friends. Typically depressed and dejected, He becomes an avoidant outcast who feels classmates and even teachers treat him unfairly. As a result, He turns to fantasy for companionship, often expressing his frustrations in his own violent artwork. Dealing with forces of bottled-up, internal anger, He dreams up plans for revenge, and He often exhibits his rage on social media. Hopeless and victimized, He walks the hallways of our school without a purpose, a simple step away from violence.

This "He" is the image of a young man in crisis. A victim of abuse? A dysfunctional teen? A child suffering with mental illness? Or, simply one of those so-called “strange kids”? In any case, this is the profile of a potential school shooter.

Of course, such a predictive profile can lead to something researchers call “the regression dilution effect" …

“With the rationale of more is better, cases are aggregated on sometimes superficial and highly variable inclusion criteria. Most lethal violence in schools in recent decades has been committed by current and former students (“Violence from within”). So, to not re-create the error of regression dilution (aggregated analysis based upon superficial facts), we examine the 'violence from within' cases and search for certain common denominators. However, we must proceed cautiously as no predictive paradigm in behavioral science is perfect, especially 'profiling.'”

(George S. Everly, Jr. Ph.D., ABPP and O. Joseph Bienvenu, MD, PhD. "'Profiling' School Shooters.” Psychology Today. March 29, 2018.)

Yet, how can we be proactive and prevent senseless massacres in American schools unless we study the people who commit the atrocities? So, with a great deal of discretion, we must create a model – albeit imperfect – of those who commit, or attempt to commit, mass murder in schools. A place to begin is to analyze the “violence from within” school shooting cases that resemble the revenge-motivated pseudo-commando mass murderer.

The National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reviewed school shootings over the course of decades. Their model of a shooter is unique in that it is not only descriptive, but can directly lead to prescriptive actionable interventions – each factor can be used to facilitate direct supportive outreach and intervention with those who may be at high risk for committing school violence or their families, or both.

Here is the model:

1. So far, the vast majority of school shooters have been male and the vast majority of those (over 90 percent) were active or recent students at the school.

2. If there is one predominant theme in school shootings, it is anger and revenge.

  a. 75% of school shooters felt bullied or harassed by other students
  b. Sometimes shooters felt unfairly treated by teachers
  c. They seldom have specific targets, but kill randomly in order to inflict the most harm

3. School shooters tended to be socially awkward and avoidant, and often isolate themselves with few if any friends.

  a. They were sometimes described as “strange”
  b. They seemed to have a penchant for” retreat into fantasy,” especially when under stress
  c. Shooters exhibited an obsessive quality that often led to detailed planning, but ironically they seemed to lack an understanding of the consequences of their behavior and thus may have a history of adverse encounters with law enforcement
  d. The same obsessive quality drives the shooter to focus upon interpersonal rejection, unfair treatment, and elaborate plans for revenge
  e. They expressed fascination with violence, morbid media, death
  f. If the shooter does associate with others, it is likely to be with those who share preoccupations with the macabre
  g. Shooters may have a history of cruelty to animals (this is a low probability factor, but a significant one when present)
  h. There is often a sense of hopelessness that predicts their own death by the end of the incident

article continues after advertisement

4. The media contagion effect (copycat killings) may serve as an especially powerful motivator for those who already feel anger, frustration or loss.
5. Shooters tend to have experienced dysfunctional family situations or experience a lack of effective adult supervision, mentoring, or oversight.
6. 68% of shooters obtained weapons from their home or the home of a relative. (Yes, ease of availability to firearms does matter.)
7. Shooters tend to express their frustrations and anger using art and/or social media posts, thus monitoring of such media becomes an important tool in early identification of individuals at risk for committing violence.

It is commonly held that there's always a trail of what they're about to do. The signs can start at a fairly early age. Chances are these shooters “just don't know what they're on the earth for."" 

The accumulation and integration of recurring themes warrant consideration, not only by law enforcement, but by educators and mental health clinicians dedicated to primary prevention and school safety. Former FBI agent and ABC News contributor Brad Garrett says …

“It's almost as if a seed gets planted into the individual, and unless somebody is there to intervene, to conduct some type of informal intervention over the course of that person's life, whether it's a parent or teacher or coach, that kid continues to move towards what could ultimately be an act of violence.”

(Emily Shapiro. “Dissecting the distinctive profile of school shooters: 'There's always a trail of what they're about to do.'” ABC News. February 22, 2018.)

Teachers know these at-risk students. They, quite frankly, interact with them every day. Teachers observe them, communicate with them, grade them, and, when necessary, discipline them. Any good teacher understands the need to establish a learning environment in which all students – from the “brains” to the “floaters” to the “loners” – can flourish. This is one of the most difficult parts of their job – to maintain a classroom “for all” and yet encourage diversity and individuality.

Profiling a student you identify with certain digressive characteristics as a “shooter” – an almost infinitesimal fraction of the characteristic inclusion – can be fraught with problems. In the pressure-cooker world of school society, there can be many reasons for “strange” and aberrant behaviors. Believe me, all teens get angry, depressed, upset, and even vengeful at times. So, addressing these issues are a daily concern.

But …

All of us teachers have also made this frightful consideration – that student just may be a young man who could bring a gun to school and unload a lethal barrage of revenge. 

And, of course, students, better than anyone else, know the workings of a school. They know exactly what's likely to go on. 

Therefore, in these times of increased gun violence, both teachers and students must report any such suspicions to proper school authorities – counselors and administrators charged with conducting further investigation. They, in turn, must take appropriate action. Is that profiling? Yes, it is. Is it necessary? Of course it is.

And, by the way, there is a counseling crisis in American schools. Many schools simply are not required to hire them. Only 31 states and the District of Columbia mandate school counselors, according to the American School Counselor Association. In 19 states, it’s not the law.

A nationwide investigation found one in four U.S. schools don’t have any counselors at all and nearly one in five school districts don’t have any district-wide, according to an analysis of the most recent U.S. Department of Education’s Civil Rights Data Collection from the 2015-2016 school year.

The American School Counselor Association recommends no more than 250 students to one counselor, but nearly 85 percent didn’t meet that standard in the 2015-16 school year.

But the lack of counselors is just part of the problem. Counselors spend much of their time not doing counseling duties. They do such work as patrolling the halls and making sure students are in class. Counselors often are assigned to bus or lunch duty.

Many counselors spend much of their time as college and career liaisons. They are basically academic facilitators. True, school counselors and other support personnel work with students on their mental health. But is it enough?

It is painfully evident that schools need more counselors to be more available and to deal with kids more quickly. That means each counselor should have a lighter load so as to devote more time to each student. Especially to the ones who appear to need it.