Expert sees no simple solutions to school violence

Terry Webster

Tuesday, July 18, 2000 | 10:14 a.m.

Denying the risk of school violence will not make it go away, said Joe Schallmoser, security supervisor over Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.

Speaking at the Rio during Monday's panel discussion on school violence during the National Association of School Safety and Law Enforcement conference, Schallmoser said people are too quick to believe there is a simple solution to school violence or that it can't happen in their school.

His point wasn't lost on Carlos Garcia, the new superintendent of the Clark County School District, the nation's sixth largest.

"We've been doing a good job, but that doesn't mean we can let it slide," Garcia said. "This is something you have to keep on top of."

In Renton, Wash., a Seattle suburb, a 13-year-old boy Monday climbed onto a middle school cafeteria table and fired a shot into the ceiling during summer school. No one was injured.

Schallmoser has the unsavory distinction of seeing the kind of violence that ends in death -- in Columbine's case 14 -- and the emotional fallout that comes afterward. Two students killed 12 students and a teacher in the April 20, 1999, shooting spree before taking their own lives.

"As tragic as it was, as bad as it was and as bad as it continues to be, there is still hope," said Schallmoser, who displayed a video that chronicles the events at Columbine.

Another speaker, Roy Balentine, principal of Pearl High School in Mississippi, said the key to preventing violence is minimizing it.

Two students were shot and killed by another student at Pearl High in 1997.

"The key is to get students involved. And other students can help," Balentine said.

Three Clark County School District students who spoke at the conference agreed. They said they have tried, as student leaders, to befriend other students who appear to be loners.

The national association is primarily composed of school district employees whose main function is law enforcement or security, school administrators and security equipment suppliers.

The conference continued today.