Out to prevent next school shooting

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Saturday, Dec. 15, 2007 | 7:41 a.m.

When school-related violence erupts, familiar questions typically follow.

Was it preventable? Did students know what was planned? And if so, why didn't they speak up?

Four Mojave High School students were shot Tuesday afternoon as they exited a school bus near Alexander and Walnut roads. Two other people were also struck. On Thursday, police arrested 18-year-old Nicco Tatum in Denver in connection with the shootings. A second suspect remains at large. Tatum attended Mojave for two years and dropped out of Centennial High School last spring. Police say the shootings were not random, and at least one of the victims was targeted.

In interviews with the Sun, Mojave students said the school's rumor mill hadn't given any hint of the shooting.

But even if he had known, said one Mojave senior, he probably wouldn't have spoken up.

"We're not snitches here," said the student, who did not want to be identified.

Similar statements came from dozens of others. Nearly every student invoked the "S" word, snitch.

Robert Butterworth, a Los Angeles psychologist specializing in youth violence, said the conspiracy of silence is to blame.

Until students see a "connection between telling and being safe, they aren't going to talk," said Butterworth, a nationally recognized expert who frequently consults with law enforcement. "We have to convince them that it's in their best interest."

Lynn Walden, a senior at Mojave, said she could understand why some of her schoolmates might be afraid to speak up. But she also believed keeping silent was a mistake.

"If I knew something like that was gonna go down I would definitely tell," Walden said. "A teacher, a dean, somebody."

Tyler Reeves, a junior at Mojave, said he takes care to "mind my own business." But he also distinguished between knowing about a plot involving guns and rumors about a looming fistfight.

"If somebody's gonna get killed over it, then yeah, you say something," Reeves said.

But, he pointed out, communication works two ways.

He counted 16 police officers on campus Wednesday after the shooting, and helicopters continually swirled overhead. Television news crews set up their cameras on the sidewalks, and students talked of little but the shootings.

But other than a brief letter handed out at the end of the day for students to take home to their parents, there was no discussion of the event.

"That's what made me mad," Reeves said. "They didn't tell us anything."

Jonathan Kyle, also a junior, agreed with Reeves. Mojave officials should have addressed the matter directly because "it's people at our school that got shot," Kyle said.

Mojave Principal Charity Vernado did not return several calls from the Sun seeking comment on the school's response to the incident.

Stavros Anthony, a member of the Board of Regents and a Metro Police captain, proposed in June that faculty at the state's colleges and universities be trained as reserve police officers. Anthony Ruggiero, a member of the State Board of Education, supported the proposal and suggested extending the training offer to teachers at K-12 campuses. The proposal failed to win support.

Even if the school bus driver had been armed it wouldn't have made a difference Tuesday, said Ruggiero, also an investigator with the state attorney general's office.

"Those kids were sitting ducks," he said. "To me, this is the epitome of a premeditated crime."

But there was another element to his proposal, one that Ruggiero said got lost in the outcry over the idea of arming teachers. The teachers would also receive special training in conflict resolution and be more attuned to safety issues at the school, Ruggiero said. That, in turn, might make students more willing to share valuable information with them, he said.

In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings last spring, the National Association of Attorneys General released a report on school safety. The report determined that in almost every incident of school and campus violence recorded nationwide, other people were aware of the perpetrator's intentions. Among the recommendations was providing students with an anonymous hot line for tips.

The Clark County School District has had an anonymous tip line since 1994, said School Police Lt. Ken Young. In some years, School Police get dozens of calls; in other years the contacts number in the hundreds. But even more valuable is the daily contact campus officers have with students, Young said. "It's a relationship-building process from the first day they step on campus until graduation," he said.

School Police are careful not to jeopardize a student by singling him out, such as in a crowded cafeteria. Students know the value of discretion as well.

"A kid will often walk by an officer and quickly tell him what he needs," Young said. "They know how to do it in an inconspicuous way."

School officials say student tips have helped them prevent campus violence, but those victories are almost impossible to quantify.

Superintendent Walt Rulffes said he believes "there are dozens and dozens of things that are headed off through the vigilance of school staff and campus police." At the same time, the schools alone cannot be responsible for preventing incidents like Tuesday's shootings at an off-campus bus stop.

"The deeper message here is that this isn't a school safety issue," Rulffes said. "It is a communitywide issue and it is going to take all of us to solve it."