Attention to warning signs can prevent attacks on schools – 04/14/2023 – Daily life

Young perpetrators of attacks on schools often leave clues of what they intend to do before carrying out their plans, warns American psychologist Peter Langman, author of three books about children and adolescents who committed — or tried to commit — the type of crime that has haunted students, parents and educators in Brazil.

These signs, he says, have nothing to do with the style of clothing these young people wear, the video games they play or their music preferences. Nor are they directly related to demographic issues, as suggested by common sense or even the production of statistical data on these events.

A study published last year in the US pointed out that 95% of perpetrators of attacks on schools in the country are men, 61% of them white, and that their average age is 15 years. On the same day that a teenager killed a teacher at his school in Vila Sônia, São Paulo, with a knife, a 28-year-old person invaded his former school in Nashville, USA, and shot three 9-year-olds and three teachers.

Langman argues that, even though there is no predetermined profile of these criminals, there are warning signs that need to be better decoded to enable the prevention of new attacks.

The most basic of these is the direct threat, which is often discredited and discarded without communicating to the authorities. In his book “Warning Signs: Identifying School Shooters Before They Strike”, published in the US in 2021, Langman lists preparedness actions (weapon stockpiling , plans of the school building and notes related to it) and other less obvious indications.

“Warning signs include what is called ‘leakage’, when students publicize their intentions and talk about their plans of attack indirectly,” he explains to Sheet. According to Langman, who has already given a lecture on the subject to FBI agents, this can occur in the form of announcements of attacks to friends or on social networks.

“They can brag about what they intend to do, invite someone to the planned action or even warn friends to stay away from school on a certain date so they don’t get hurt”, he describes. “These signs need to be reported to the school and public safety authorities.”

For the psychologist, another sign is favorable or positive comments regarding attacks that have occurred and been reported. The public manifestation that these acts would be “acceptable”, “admirable” or even considered as “necessary” should be considered as a warning, according to the expert.

Langman says that, although social networks can contribute to the so-called contagion effect, in which information about an attack can act as a trigger for other young people to deflagrate similar plans, they also helped to prevent these acts from taking place. “Attacks were prevented because people saw posts about people intending to commit these crimes and alerted the authorities, who were able to intervene before the attack took place,” she reports.

The psychologist, who is now on the board of the National Association for Behavioral Intervention and Threat Assessment, was working at a psychiatric hospital for children and young people in the state of Pennsylvania (USA) in 1999 when the Columbine massacre took place, which killed 15 people. .

“Ten days after this incident, a potential school shooter was admitted to the hospital and I was the one who did a psychological evaluation on him,” he recalls. “Then came another potential shooter, and another. And that one became the subject of my research.”

In his first book on the subject, in 2009, Langman studied the history and psychological profile of several young people who attacked schools and identified three recurring profiles: the traumatized, the psychopathic and the psychotic.

According to this typology, traumatized shooters are those who grew up in dysfunctional families, characterized by parental drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence, physical or sexual abuse, and neglect.

Psychotic shooters suffer from personality disorders or schizophrenia and show symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, mental and behavioral disorganization, with beliefs and habits considered eccentric.

Psychopathic shooters, on the other hand, have a narcissistic and self-referential profile, do not show empathy for others and are sometimes sadistic.

“It is important to recognize that most people in these three categories will never kill anyone. And that typology is crucial to understanding perpetrators, but that in itself is not responsible for their attacks”, he ponders. For Langman, many other factors can contribute to these young people becoming violent.

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WHAT TO DO IN CASE OF THREAT OF ATTACKS ON SCHOOLS

• Experts say threats should not be ignored. Therefore, it is important that parents and schools contact the Civil Police and channels created by the Ministry of Justice to report any type of threat.

• Do not share messages, videos, photos or audios with threats

• Authorities need to be notified of any type of threat, as those who produce or share them can also respond criminally

• Parents, students and schools must maintain a close dialogue about alerts, fears and measures adopted. The transparency of actions is important to increase the sense of security

• Be aware and inform the school of any changes in student behavior

HOW TO REPORT

• As part of the Safe School Operation, the Ministry of Justice launched a channel on the website for websites, blogs and publications on social networks to be denounced. The website for reporting is www.mj.gov.br/escolasegura
• In São Paulo, in the event of a threat, it is possible to call 181, a police channel that allows anyone to provide the police with information about crimes and forms of violence, with a guarantee of anonymity.