Warning Signs Always There, Expert Says

It would be hard to find a high school in California that doesn’t have its loners and misfits--the kids with the Mohawks, tongue studs, trench coats, or those whose idiosyncrasies are less obvious.

A day after two disaffected students went on a killing rampage in a Colorado high school, parents, teachers and school officials across the region said they have been painfully reminded of the need to differentiate typically alienated teenagers from those prone to deadly violence.

Although there may never be an exact science to identifying dangerous students, experts say schools must be more attuned to signs of impending trouble.

“One of the things I have been concerned about when I hear the reports from Colorado is that some people say, ‘This came out of the blue,’ that there weren’t any warning signs or clues,” said Jana Martin, a clinical psychologist and expert in adolescent behavior. “There are always warning signs.”

But communities may struggle to heed the signs because school counselors are in short supply, parents often are busy and out of touch, and students don’t know whether the teenager in the next seat is a menace or merely an iconoclast.

A spate of brochures, seminars and even a program to air on MTV this afternoon should help spell out the markers of adolescent violence. Experts said there are several things schools and families should be doing:

* School officials must take every threat seriously, no matter how seemingly innocuous. They must draw out loners and help them build positive relationships.

* Parents should talk with their children as soon as odd or isolating behavior begins and bring in other adults to help, if need be.

* Students should report classmates who behave strangely or make threats and be assured that they are not “ratting,” but perhaps saving lives.

* Young people should be encouraged not to taunt or alienate those who are already on the fringes, perhaps exacerbating a dangerous situation.

Gunmen Displayed Bursts of Temper

Most high schools are rife with cliques and rivalries as teenagers struggle to establish an identity.

In Littleton, Colo., the two gunmen had reputations as outsiders, dressing in black trench coats, displaying bursts of temper and enduring taunts from more popular peers.

One North Hollywood student who also wears a black trench coat and face powder said Wednesday he is tormented routinely by classmates.

“Man, I had thought before about blowing up the school,” said Luis Juarez. “Kids here are so judgmental it’s pathetic. They call me ‘freak,’ ‘Satan,’ any little name that they want to throw out. Every day it’s something.”

Jeanine Loudermilk, a 15-year-old Ventura High School student, said her school is divided among jocks, geeks, white supremacists, gang members, surfers and break dancers, who often don’t get along.

“There are a lot of kids that have problems and emotions built up inside,” she said. “And I get scared thinking about how they could release that anger.”

America has slipped well past the day when threats by young people can be considered merely idle or designed to grab attention, said Russ Newman, executive director for professional practice with the American Psychological Assn.

“Even if these students are not going to carry out the threats, it is not natural behavior,” Newman said. “It is generally a cry for help and that ought to be taken very seriously. They should be talking to these kids to see if they need help.”

The American Psychological Assn. recently issued a 10-page “Warning Signs” pamphlet to help students, teachers and parents recognize when a young person could be violent. Among the signs that violence could be immediate: loss of temper on a daily basis, increased use of drugs or alcohol, announced threats, carrying a weapon or pleasure in hurting animals.

Other more chronic markers of impending violence are when a child has access to or fascination with weapons, has been a victim of bullying, feels constantly disrespected or withdraws from friends and activities.

MTV Program Is Moved Up

Those warning signs are also at the heart of the program to premiere at 4:30 this afternoon on MTV and to be shown repeatedly in the coming weeks on the youth-oriented television network, a spokesman said. The program had been in the works for months but was released five days early because of the Colorado tragedy.

The awareness campaign will be kicked off in conjunction with the psychological association at a youth forum at Paramount Studios this evening. Administrators in many Southern California school districts on Wednesday urged their employees to renew their vigilance after the massacre at Columbine High School.

“We should err on the side of safety and caution and not always worry about what a parent will say if we contact them about their son or daughter’s behavior,” Jerry Davis, superintendent of the Manhattan Beach Unified School District, told his staff, in a typical statement.

But some California school leaders worry that they don’t have enough adults on campus to keep an eye out for troubled kids. The state ranks last in the nation in student-to-guidance counselor ratio, 1 to 1,082, compared to the national average of one counselor for every 512 students.

Elissa Benedek, a former president of the American Psychiatric Assn., said teachers and counselors “don’t have enough time to spend with these kids, to listen to them and help them.”

Richard Lieberman, a school psychologist with the Los Angeles Unified School District suicide prevention unit, concurred. “We definitely need more support services and school psychologists. You have to have some way of giving kids who feel alienated an opportunity to talk to someone,” Lieberman said.

Busy working parents also might have trouble connecting with their kids. They should turn to a YMCA director, school counselor or a rabbi, educators said.

“Parenting is a very challenging job, and it’s always good to get another person’s perspective,” said Kay Ostensen, a counselor at Thurston Middle School in Laguna Beach. “Often, parents say to me, ‘My child doesn’t want to go to a counselor.’ But, if your child had a broken arm and didn’t want to go to the doctor because she was afraid of the orthopedist, you’d take her no matter what. If there’s something broken in her personality, we need to help her.”

School employees differed, however, on how far they should go in singling out potentially dangerous students.

At John F. Kennedy High School in Granada Hills, an “impact” program attempts to find and treat students with drug and alcohol problems and those having a hard time dealing with school, society and their families.

Principal Warren G. Mason Jr. said some students come on their own, but others are referred by school employees.

“They stand out like a sore thumb,” Mason said. “It is normally a combination of dress and behavior.”

Las Virgenes Unified School District Supt. John Fitzpatrick said, however, that educators “have to be careful that you’re not judging kids based on what they’re wearing or what they look like.’

Mark Lopez, a lawyer with Schoolwatch/SENTRY, an Orange County educational watch group, protested that minority students are particularly singled out for nonconformist behavior.

“Should you crack down on kids trying to express themselves? No. . . . They should crack down on kids doing things wrong,” Lopez said.

Michael Vossen, an assistant principal at Newport Harbor High, agreed that it’s easier for school administrators to keep tabs on students with gang affiliations than to spot distraught outcasts.

Security measures provide another line of defense in heavily urban Southern California districts. School police and security guards are more common than not and metal detectors are present at many campuses.

Every high school and most middle schools in the Los Angeles district have at least one armed officer on duty; the district has had an anonymous hotline to report threats since 1993; and high school administrators are required to set up a random search with a hand-held metal detector somewhere on campus each day.

In the last two years, gun-related crimes have decreased from 336 to 193.

“When you walk around, there are like five security guards everywhere,” said Lusine Boyadzhyan, 16, of John Marshall High School in Los Feliz. “I feel safe.”

Threat Brings Arrest, Suspension

Any student who makes a serious and specific threat of attacking a school is arrested, suspended from school and likely to face expulsion, said L.A. Unified Police Chief Wes Mitchell.

“He may also be evaluated by a psychological services team,” Mitchell said. “In any case, that incident could be the one that triggers a close hard look at this kid.”

The Colorado killings may prompt even more precautions in California.

Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa has agreed to work with the Simon Wiesenthal Center at the Museum of Tolerance to draft legislation that would, among other things, develop a curriculum to encourage students to be more tolerant of one another, said the speaker’s spokeswoman, Elena Stern.

The shootings were expected to give impetus to a bill by Assemblyman Jack Scott (D-Altadena) on his legislation to provide additional resources for creating crisis response teams for school districts.

State Superintendent of Public Intruction Delaine Eastin said she would push to provide telephones in every classroom, peripheral fencing and other security measures, conflict resolution training and expanded counseling services. Eastin did not say how much the changes could cost or where the money would come from.

No matter how much planning and discussion follow the Colorado shootings, many students said they would be looking over their shoulders for some time.

“It’s scary,” said 17-year-old Bogard Bastida of Gibert-East High School in Anaheim. “When you tease somebody, you never know how they will react, whether they pull a knife on you or a gun, you have to worry about everybody. It’s better to be friends than enemies.”

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Times staff writers Jeff Gettleman, Jill Leovy, Ray Herndon, Nancy Trejos, Michael Luo, Anna Gorman, Kate Folmar, Lisa Richardson, Julie Marquis and Kenneth Weiss and correspondent Crystal Carreon contributed to this story.