Preventing Violence Starts with You

In the aftermath of Aurora, CO one of the most important questions that comes up is, "How can these incidents be prevented?"

The story from Oklahoma, where a cab driver heard a 17-year old boy talk about a Columbine-style massacre, gives us a clue.

The Denver Post also printed an article by Delbert Elliot and Beverly Kingston that, other than an obvious plug for their product, raised a great point.  "A key violence-prevention strategy is good surveillance and intelligence."  


The Secret Service published a study in 2002 that examined school attacks from 1974 through 2000.  One of its major findings was that, "...school shootings are rarely impulsive acts. Rather, they are typically thought out and planned out in advance. In addition, prior to most shootings other kids knew the shooting was to occur - but did not alert an adult."

There are four phases to emergency management: mitigation/prevention, preparedness, response and recovery.  While taking courses for a Master's Certificate in Homeland Security this past spring, I learned that there are voices calling for prevention to become a separate phase, as it deals only with man-made incidents.  Whether it does or not remains to be seen, but in our current climate, it takes on increasing significance.

Violence rarely, if ever, happens in a vacuum.  The US Department of Homeland Security learned that there are signs that are displayed prior to the incident.  If you compare school attacks to terror attacks, there are seven signs of an impending attack: 1) Surveillance, which may include the use of cameras (either still or video), note taking, drawing diagrams, or annotating on maps; 2) Elicitations, where people attempt to gain information about school operations, capabilities, or people; 3) Tests of security, which are attempts to measure reaction times to security breaches or to penetrate physical security barriers or procedures in order to assess strengths and weaknesses; 4) Acquiring supplies, such as purchasing or stealing explosives, weapons, ammunition, etc; 5) Persons out of place, which is students who don’t seem to belong in the that part of the school; 6) Dry run/trial run, where people and/or equipment are put into position and moving them around according to plan without actually committing the terrorist act; and 7) Deploying assets, where people and supplies are getting into position to commit the act. This is the last chance to alert authorities before the terrorist act occurs.

What needs to be done is to create the kind of climate in schools where kids feel comfortable in approaching an adult and telling them of the signs they have seen that worry them, and to have school personnel who are confident in their abilities to recognize the seriousness of the information they are hearing, and to act properly on that information.

This can involve quick-fixes like hotlines and anonymous drop boxes, which are good ideas, but should involve the long-term actions that develop trusting relationships with students.  Students will not bring forth information if they feel that their information will be ignored, or worse yet, when they get in trouble for bringing it up.  That information is useless if staff members do not act appropriately on it.

Given the increasing number of stories like Aurora and Oklahoma, wouldn't it be prudent to take the time to develop the measures that can prevent such tragedies are occurring?

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