School Violence In U.S. Thwarted When Others Speak Up: Report

ACROSS AMERICA — Students and parents who saw something amiss about another student's behavior spoke up and likely saved lives. the U.S. Secret Service said in a new report on school violence released this week.

In its report titled “Averting Targeted School Violence,” the Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center studied 67 thwarted school violence plots, as well as the motives and backgrounds of 100 students who intended to carry out the plots.

Seeing early warning signs of a student who might carry out a mass attack and getting that person help is critical to stopping school violence, the center found through its research.

Sixty-eight shootings have taken place in U.S. schools since the Columbine High School massacre in April 1999, according to the most recent data available through the K-12 School Shooting Database.

While school shootings are still rare compared to daily gun violence, data shows they are happening more often. In fact, from 2015 to 2018, the United States averaged one school shooting every 77 days, according to the database.

To create its report, the National Threat Assessment Center looked at cases at K-12 schools in 33 states between 2008-2017. A majority of the targeted schools (84 percent) were high schools and one-third were in suburban communities.

While the cases examined came from public records, the locations of the thwarted violence attempts were intentionally anonymized in the report, a Secret Service spokeswoman told Patch.

Students who plotted school violence attacks also shared similar history and behaviors as those who actually carried out attacks, such as a history of school discipline, contact with law enforcement, and drug and alcohol use, research found.

Many experienced bullying or had mental health issues like depression or suicidal thoughts. A majority also came from a home where parents had mental health issues, used drugs or alcohol, or were incarcerated.

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The report found that students were most likely to plot violence as a way to retaliate against classmates. Most had access to weapons like guns, and many displayed an interest in violence or other hate-filled topics.

Among students who plotted violence, 95 percent were male, the report found. Eighty percent also faced some form of criminal charge following the discovery of their plot.

This is why early intervention is so critical, researchers say.

"We want to make sure that we are identifying these kids before it gets to the level where they are engaging in criminal actions, and then face legal consequences for that," Dr. Lina Althari, director of the Secret Service's National Threat Assessment Center, told ABC News.

Other students are best positioned to report something amiss among their classmates, the report authors found; however, only one-third of schools had a system in place to make these kinds of reports.

Two-thirds of schools analyzed also had school resource officers, who report authors say play a critical role in curbing school violence. In nearly one-third of cases studied, a school resource officer was the first to receive a potential violence report.

The most important thing schools can do, according to the report, is to create a threat assessment plan. The plan would provide interventions and support for students experiencing distress or exhibiting behaviors that could lead to potential violence.

Read the full report online