Recognizing which struggling teens could potentially harm others is a major engagement for schools and communities. Law-enforcement agencies that study young shooters say there are several warning signs that lead to mass shootings—and that early intervention is key to stopping them.
School districts are increasingly leaning on surveillance software that checks young people’s posts and writings, as school shooters almost always document their plans.
These software systems, from companies such as Gaggle, Lightspeed Systems and Bark, monitor communications across school-issued equipment and networks. Artificial intelligence detects language that signals to students an intention to harm themselves or others. Student emails and music written in Google Docs and Microsoft Office 365 that indicate plans for violence, as well as Web searches for weapons or methods of suicide, are flagged to administrators, who must then decide whether a Threat is credible and how to act.
Quintin Shepherd, superintendent of the Victoria Independent School District, Victoria, Texas, said, “It’s an early-alert system that alerts us that something is happening, so we can address it before it reaches the level of a criminal act.” ” About 200 miles east of Uvalde, where 19 elementary students and two teachers were murdered Tuesday by an 18-year-old high-school dropout.
While it’s impossible to know exactly how many school shootings have been prevented, users say the technology is good at spotting warning signs where students are communicating using school services. But security experts say schools should be ready to act when alerts come in, with procedures to assess warnings and staff to respond.
Alerts typically include flagged words, the type of threat (human homicide, suicide or other issues) and where the student typed the words. When a threat is perceived to be credible—say, a student writes about having suicidal thoughts rather than writing about suicide. A classroom project—the school counselor often visits the student’s home. School officials say parents often express surprise. Depending on the situation, a student may be hospitalized, referred to a doctor for treatment, or monitored more closely by counselors.
The 18-year-old accused of murdering 10 people at a Buffalo, NY, supermarket earlier this month was referred to a hospital earlier. Medical staff determined he was not dangerous or mentally ill and sent him home.
The District of Victoria uses Gaggle, which costs about $6 per year per student. Yet districts cannot rely on technology alone to prevent school violence, Dr. Shepherd said. When he became superintendent four years ago, he asked community members about their concerns, and student safety ranked high on the list. Adults said they wanted more physical security, such as school police officers and notification systems. Students said they wanted more mental-health support and help develop coping skills.
School districts have received billions of dollars in federal pandemic-relief funding to address mental-health issues and learning loss. Districts are scrambling to use all means to detect and prevent violence, though many are struggling to spend federal aid before money disappears from the budget in 2024.
Dr Shepherd said her district has reduced 300 operational, administrative and instructional jobs in its workforce to provide more mental-health services to students. Victoria — a district of 13,500 students in a largely low-income Hispanic community similar to Uvalde — added a social-emotional behavior specialist to each school to help struggling students and families.
“We recognized that every student comes to school with certain emotions, and sometimes those feelings are sad, angry or upset,” Dr Shepherd said. “If we can see this early and early, we can help kids hijack their feelings. Their feelings because that’s when bad things happen.”
warning signs
A US Secret Service analysis of violent conspiracies against 67 schools last year found that in 94% of cases, targeted attackers shared their plans verbally, electronically, or in online posts. Many even outlined their plans in magazines, documents and video or audio recordings that were not shared. The Uvalde shooter privately messaged a teenager living abroad on Facebook that he was planning to kill his grandmother and school children just before the shooting. It is also said that he posted pictures and videos of guns and self-harm on social media.
According to a Federal Bureau of Investigation report on the behavior of attackers, active shooters displayed four to five behaviors that were related to those around them, such as changes in mental health, difficult interpersonal interactions, and discussions of violence. The shooters also faced a number of problems in the year before the attack, ranging from disciplinary action at school to misbehavior at home. Mental-health conflicts such as depression, anxiety or paranoia were prevalent among these shooters. However, a formal diagnosis was made prior to the attack in about 25% of the cases studied by the FBI.
The FBI found that for shooters under the age of 18, they were more likely to see behavior related to schoolmates than family members. The behavior was reported to law enforcement in 41% of cases. In most, the only discussion about behavior was between the shooter and the accomplices.
Suicidal thoughts were also common among teens who harmed others, according to the FBI and other officials.
“People who have suicidal tendencies often have suicidal tendencies. We see both of them as potential threats to the district,” said David Watson, director of safety and security for School District 49 in Falcon, Colo. Said, who uses Bark to alert administrators to student dangers. Mr Watson said his district began to notice an increase in youth mental-health issues in the 2017-2018 school year and since then there have been several student suicides in the northeastern region of Colorado Springs.
Bark offers a free version of its AI-powered service for schools to scan their communications. The software is not a stand-alone app or filter used within the school’s network; Rather, it is implemented in the school’s Google and Microsoft Office 365 domains. For an annual fee of $2 per student, districts can pay to review potentially serious hazards to humans that are flagged after school hours.
BARC’s director of professional development, Katie McPherson, said schools need “trained personnel who know what it looks like when a student is turning to violence or suicide,” adding: “Districts where That’s not training, they’re not getting the most. The benefits of the equipment.”
Dr. Shepherd said her district in Texas has responded to at least two dozen serious threats of self-harm or harm to others this school year. But he said the community never knew of acts of violence that could prevent mitigation efforts. “The newspapers don’t print stories about what didn’t happen,” he said.