Answering School Violence

Hoarse after 10 hours of discussions, comments, opinions and statistics on the increase of violence in the nation’s schools, Ronald Stephens tried to nurse his vocal cords with a cup of tea with lemon.

It was Friday afternoon at the National School Safety Center--housed in a nondescript office suite in Westlake Village--and, its executive director had done the radio circuit, been interviewed by Peter Jennings, appeared on CNN and talked to reporters from as far away as Germany. All wanted to talk to Stephens about Thursday’s shooting rampage in a Springfield, Ore., high school cafeteria, allegedly by a 15-year-old boy who had been called “Most Likely to Start World War III” in his middle school yearbook.

Stephens is a leading national expert on school violence and, during the past five months, has been among those the media often turned to for comment on shootings at schools in West Paducah, Ky.; Jonesboro, Ark.; Edinboro, Pa.; and now Springfield.

Stephens, 51, is on leave from his position at Pepperdine University, where he was a professor in the graduate school of education and psychology. He also has experience as a teacher, administrator and school board member in school districts in California and Oregon.

He and his staff of seven educators, lawyers and school administrators travel to school districts across the country after the gunpowder has cleared. They went to Bethel, Alaska, after a teenager chased fellow students through the halls of his high school before gunning down the principal and three teenagers in February 1997.

They also advised educators at a high school in Amarillo, Texas, in 1992 after a 17-year-old opened fire following a pep rally and wounded six students.

This summer, they will travel to West Paducah to calm a staff still shaken after a 14-year-old boy allegedly opened fire on a high school prayer group, killing three students and wounding five.

“We are seeing an increase in more severe crimes,” Stephens said.

Years ago, there was talk about one shooting or one student being shot. Now shootings have become more frequent. In many recent incidents, more than one student has been killed and as many as a dozen or more injured, he said.

“Years ago, we talked about fistfights, now we talk about gunfights,” he said. “First it was a big deal if we saw guns come to school. Now we’re seeing semiautomatic weapons.”

The National School Safety Center is a partnership of Pepperdine University and was funded from its inception in 1984 until December 1997 by federal grants from the U.S. Justice and Education departments to provide school safety programs for the nation’s educators.

But the funding expired last year, replaced by competitive bidding among colleges, universities and nonprofit groups that are also qualified to disseminate information about school violence and offer safety training to schools nationwide, said Bill Modzeleski, director of Safe and Drug Free Schools, a U.S. Department of Education program.

“There has been a growing awareness of school violence and . . . more and more citizens are paying attention to this issue,” said Adam Spector, a public affairs specialist for the Justice Department. “More research has been done and more information is available, and out of fairness [we decided] the best thing to do is to have an open competition and give [organizations] an opportunity to submit their best proposals.”

Both departments expect to receive applications in the next few weeks. They, along with an outside committee of peers, will review the applications. A decision on a new grantee is expected by the end of the fiscal year, on Sept. 30, Modzeleski said.

“The National School Safety Center is welcome to apply,” Spector said.

For now at least, the center will continue to examine crime trends in schools. Stephens said that revenues from the sale of publications once handed out free has helped keep the center open.

“We are a short time away from having to shut down,” Stephens said.

Concerned about an increase in school-related violence on the nation’s campuses, President Ronald Reagan started the National School Safety Center in 1984. Since then, the center has put together 1,000 anti-crime programs and reached about 125,000 teachers and school staffs throughout the country, Stephens said.

The center also publishes newsletters and produces videotapes on topics such as crisis prevention and high-risk youths.

Stephens said the center doesn’t “ambulance chase,” but makes itself available to school administrators after they have lost students and teachers to gun violence.

He admitted that, “unfortunately it does take a crisis” before the center is called out to help.

Norma Paulus, Oregon’s superintendent of schools, called Stephens on Friday, seeking advice to calm students, teachers and parents after Thursday’s shooting.

Stephens said he told her to reopen school as soon as possible and invite parents to participate in monitoring the campus. Thurston High School reopened Tuesday.

“A significant adult presence on campus sends a message to students that there are people who care and it adds support to youngsters on the campus,” he said.

According to statistics gathered by the National School Safety Center between 1992 and 1994, 40% of young killers had previous arrests, 24% were under the influence of alcohol or drugs, 35% were involved in gangs and 70% had previously brought a weapon to school.

“Youngsters don’t go over to campus and start pulling the trigger of a gun. There are early warning signs,” he said.

“The kind of violence we’re seeing is so severe, so dramatic, so outrageous,” Stephens said, adding that every incident, whether it be in Jonesboro, Edinboro or Springfield, offers lessons.

“Jonesboro and now Springfield, Ore., are now an additional wake-up call that violence is no respecter of person, ethnicity or geography,” he said.