Schools advised on preventing shootings

Jace Radke

Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2003 | 11:34 a.m.

The key to preventing school shootings is identifying subtle changes in students' behavior that could lead to the threat of violence, according to a Secret Service study of 37 school shootings over the past 25 years.

The results of the Safe School Initiative study, conducted from September 1999 to May 2002, were presented Tuesday by the Secret Service to Clark County School District Police.

"What we're trying to do is provide accurate and useful information that shows a glimpse of what these shooters are thinking and how they are behaving," said Dr. Robert Fein, a forensic psychologist who works as a consultant to the Secret Service in preventing violence.

"The hope is that teachers and law enforcement can develop threat assessment skills, instead of throwing kids out of school because they are wearing trench coats."

The daylong meeting at Desert Pines High School was a refresher course for CCSD Police, who already have a number of programs and safeguards in place to prevent school shootings, Lt. Ken Young said.

"The most important thing is talking to the students and developing a relationship, so that they'll tell you what's going on," Young said. "We've always had a zero-tolerance policy for weapons of any kind on campus, but I think the issue really came to the forefront when Columbine happened."

In April 1999 two students killed 12 fellow students and a teacher and injured 23 others before killing themselves at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. That shooting caused the Secret Service and the Education Department to begin the study of school violence.

The study included interviews with some of the 41 perpetrators in the 37 school shootings. It included prominent school shootings that have become synonymous with the names of the communities where they occurred, such as Springfield, Ore., and Jonesboro, Ark.

The study focuses on what officials called targeted school violence, and Secret Service officials say that it revealed no accurate or useful profile for those who engage in school violence. Most of the 41 shooters had been brought to the attention of school officials before the attack, and many felt bullied or picked on, Fein said.

"Some were doing badly in school and others were on the honor roll," Fein said. "Some were loners and others had lots of friends. There isn't a picture of what these people look like; we have to look at their behavior."

Clark County School District Police use behavior as a gauge in determining if there is a threat, Young said.

About two years ago the district police "added a threat assessment component that includes a staff psychologist, who we can have talk to students and make recommendations," Young said. "Sometimes we may have a student who hasn't crossed the line that would cause us to make an arrest, but we can have the psychologist make an evaluation."

The school district has also beefed up the number of school police officers from 110 in 1999 to 142, with 13 more officers expected to be hired by the end of the year. Two officers are stationed at each of the district's 33 high schools, and one at each of the district's 43 middle schools. In addition there are roving patrol officers who patrol different campuses.

Along with threat assessment, school police also rely on partnerships with local police agencies to provide education and preventative programs at schools.

One program they use is called "Zero Weapons, Zero Tolerance," or "Z-squared," which uses assemblies and campus visits from police officers to educate students and parents about gun safety. Another program is Operation Crime Free Schools, which uses a 24-hour anonymous tip line (799-0228) that allows students to give information to school police without fear of retribution.

Random locker searches using dogs that can locate weapons, and metal detectors at special events and sporting events are also employed.

School police regularly confiscate guns at Clark County schools, with a total of 67 recovered during the 2001-02 school year. That number included 29 firearms, 36 BB or pellet guns and two paintball guns.

Overall police statistics showed that the number of guns confiscated was up by 10 from the 2000-01 school year, while confiscated knives went from 79 in 2000-01 to 90 in 2001-02.

The number of school burglaries dropped from 842 to 736 over the last two school years with the number of assaults rising from 42 to 58.

Columbine also changed the way police react to shooters in a building, Young said. During the Columbine incident, police gathered outside and contained the area, and were later criticized for not going in and perhaps preventing more shootings.

Now police are trained in what they call "active shooter" procedures. That means that if someone is walking around inside a building firing a weapon, police will go in and confront the person.

"No matter what kind of police show up first we're all trained to go in and work together to handle the situation," Young said.

While the possibility of a school shooting exists, there is a difference between the fear of a crime and the reality of a crime, Metro Police spokesman Lt. Vincent Cannito said.

"Could it happen? Yes," Cannito said. "Is it highly probable? No. But we are as prepared as we can be."

The last school shooting in Clark County was at Clark High School in October 1999 when two students, ages 15 and 16, were shot as they stood at the northeast corner of the campus after school had let out.

Both victims were shot in the arm and survived the attack. The incident was believed to be gang motivated, and the shooter, Maynor Villanueva, then 18, was sentenced to 16 to 40 years in prison.

The deadliest school shooting in Clark County occurred in March 1982 when Valley High School teacher Clarence Piggott Jr. was shot and killed by Patrick Lizotte, a troubled student whom Piggott had taken under his wing.

Lizotte wounded two other students before being shot by a police officer. Lizotte survived and is currently serving two life sentences at the Southern Nevada Correctional Facility in Jean. Neither shooting was included in the Secret Service report.