Secret Service study: School attackers showed warning signs

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Secret Service study: School attackers showed warning signs

By COLLEEN LONG
November 7, 2019

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most students who committed deadly school attacks over the past decade were badly bullied, had a history of disciplinary trouble and their behavior concerned others but was never reported, according to a U.S. Secret Service study released Thursday.

In at least four cases, attackers wanted to emulate other school shootings, including those at Columbine High School in Colorado, Virginia Tech University and Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. The research was launched following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The study by the Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center is the most comprehensive review of school attacks since the Columbine shootings in 1999. The report looked in-depth at 41 school attacks from 2008 through 2017, and researchers had unprecedented access to a trove of sensitive data from law enforcement including police reports, investigative files and nonpublic records.

The information gleaned through the research will help train school officials and law enforcement on how to better identify students who may be planning an attack and how to stop them before they strike.

“These are not sudden, impulsive acts where a student suddenly gets disgruntled,” Lina Alathari, the center’s head, said in an Associated Press interview. “The majority of these incidents are preventable.”

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Read more: https://apnews.com/a592850f54634daea31be69defec841e

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Related: A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Targeted School Violence (U.S. Secret Service)

[OldBaldy1701E]

1. yeah, well...

You have to have parents who raise their kids as opposed to just spitting them out for social status. Yes, probably all of them were preventable, but you have to give a shit about your kids first. (Sure, the common perception is that if you have wealth, you are a good parent. Regardless of how individuals speak about this, the general public perception is that they must be decent parents because of their good house and well-dressed progeny). After working in a fairly upscale private school for many years, I can tell you that what I saw was the opposite. People who were far too busy with their careers and social status to be worrying about their kids mental health and well being were the norm, not the exception. I watched one poor 8 yo kid get absolutely chewed out because his mother, who showed up in furs, had just arrived in her new kabillion dollar SUV and was mad that her son was going to get her new seats (which were covered, BTW), a bit dusty. I have seen a child watch from the pick-up desk as another (less... upwardly mobile, shall we say?) mother picked up her kid and they left, with the child excitingly telling his mother about his day. The kid sitting in the chair beside me watches this and then, to herself, mumbles "Wow, I have never seen that before." in a wistful tone. That child's family was one of the richest at the school... and she had 'never seen' such closeness before. I wept a bit that night thinking about it. Bottom line, there is no longer an effort to raise kids, just to have them. It sucks. It is one of the reasons this country is disintegrating. (These types are the same people who pretty much ended the concept of 'it takes a village to raise a child' due to being called out for not raising their own kids and taking responsibility for them. So, they sued and created a culture of fear so other people would leave them alone.)

[appalachiablue]

2. Agree there's a lot of this esp. in US hustle society.