Study released on school attacks.

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April is coming, and most of us who can remember would rather not remember what happened 22 years ago at Columbine High School in Colorado.

A study by the Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center is a twist on the study of school attacks.  The group analyzed 100 students responsible for plotting 67 attacks nationwide from 2006-18 in K-12 schools.  It is a companion report to its study in 2019 on student attackers, the most comprehensive analysis of school attacks since the 1999 Columbine High School killings.

While the study itself found there are almost always intervention points available before a student resorts to violence, it is also important to spell out what those "intervention points" may be.  Below is a list compiled from the referenced article; and, like all such lists, is not an "all or nothing" checklist.  However, the more of these "signs" that are evident, the more urgent intervention may be.

A rough profile of a "typical" school shooter may include, but not be limited to:

• Male.
• Ages 11 to 19.
• Conducted research into previous school shootings
• Documented plans through a to-do list or written "manifesto".
• Exhibited symptoms of depression or other mental health issues.
• Expressed desire for fame and/or notoriety.
• Expressed intent to kill themselves as part of the attack.
• Expressed interest in Adolf Hitler, Nazism or white supremacy.
• Expressed interest in violence or hate.
• Expressed suicidal ideations.
• Impacted by adverse childhood experiences (i.e., abuse, abandonment, parental addictions and/or mental health issues, divorce, et cetera).
• Motivated by personal grievances (i.e., bullying, social snubs, et cetera).
• Persona alcohol/drugs abuse.
• Planned an attack for sometime in April (e.g., when the Columbine shootings occurred).
• Planned to attack a public school.
• Possessed or had access to homemade explosives.
• Possessed or had access to weapons from home.
• Spoke/wrote about their attacks and plans.

Again, this is not an "all-or-nothing" list, and a person exhibiting only a few of these "symptoms" may not be at risk at all for attacking a school.

Many of us have been asking "Why?" for over twenty years, and we are finally getting some answers.  Some of them may have been obvious from the start, and some may only be derived from pulling apart the data.

What has emerged is a "profile" of a disturbed individual with troubled social relations and fixations on violence.

Source:  This Associated Press News Article