It’s Hard to See the Line Where Alienation Turns to Violence

For as long as there have been high school cafeterias, there have been misfits without a friendly place to eat their lunch.

But it has never seemed to matter as much as it does now, when the lines drawn between high school groups--between the jocks and preppies and potheads and Goths and nerds--can turn into something far more serious than the melodrama of a fistfight in the hall.

And it likely has never conjured such difficult questions about teenagers as now, in the wake of Tuesday’s killing spree at a suburban Denver high school. How could it happen? Why did it happen? Could it happen here?

High school students are more sensitive about their differences than ever before, said Grace Mucci, clinical director for Newport Beach’s Assessment and Treatment Services, a clinic that offers free counseling for problem teenagers.

That, she says, is because teenagers are going to more trouble to forge an identity, a sense of being special in some way. Behaviors and styles that used to be considered outrageous now have become part of the mainstream, Mucci said. That has left youths looking for ever more creative ways to express their individuality.

“They’re becoming more sensitive,” she said. “Kids today are more thin-skinned. When somebody is treading on [their individuality], they react. Violence.”

Parents and educators said the shooting has left them with a painful reminder: The difference between alienated youths and violent youths may be little more than an inadvertent bump or a whispered taunt. The pair in the shooting apparently were seeking revenge for all the slights directed against them because of their black trench coats and makeup-whitened faces.

But how to control and predict high school students, one of the most quixotic and unpredictable elements in American society?

Stumped educators do what they can. Last year, an honor student at Loara High School in Anaheim was expelled and arrested for threatening to kill a vice principal, a teacher, and a student--one week after a high school shooting rampage in Springfield, Ore. The Anaheim student was later convicted of making terrorist threats and placed on probation.

“The message we’re sending is that we don’t care if you’re kidding about killing another person; we’re not [kidding],” Police Sgt. Joe Vargas said.

And on Wednesday, the principal of the High School of St. Mary in Aliso Viejo was considering installing metal detectors at the school, even though the detectors can easily be skirted.

“You can be sure everyone here has taken a deep breath and said, ‘Could this happen here?’ ” Bonnie Bruce, school board president of the Huntington Beach Union High School District, said Wednesday. “There isn’t a certain answer. You just hope you have the right safeguards in place.”

Students, Educators Reflect on Tragedy

The violence in Colorado spurred similar introspection Wednesday in lunchrooms and boardrooms across the region and throughout Orange County. Teachers started impromptu sessions for students about staying safe and reporting possible problems.

Anaheim High Principal Pat Savage said school administrators “track down all rumors” about students who might foment trouble. But “you can’t treat kids any differently because they look different--you don’t want to isolate them,” Savage said.

Gail Rothman, who heads the 1,200-member Irvine teachers union, said instructors are always watching for kids who look disturbed and picked-on, and for those who are having trouble with classes and families.

“You always have kids on the outside, kids who for some reason or another don’t fit in,” she said. “They’re always looking for alternative movements: [things that represent] a home, security and friendship. In Irvine, we’re always watching for the kids on the cusp of falling through the cracks. We’re always trying to reach out to them.”

With the practical wisdom of youth, some students take a more pragmatic approach to possible violence: Don’t mess with anybody who could have a gun.

“It’s scary,” said Bogard Bastida, a 17-year-old junior at Gilbert-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.”

Adolescence is a fragile time, educators say. A time when the right outfit can seem more important than friendship, when a verbal jab can destroy self-confidence. That thinking helped spark a movement in which parents tried desperately to heighten their children’s confidence, showering their children with praise and unconditional love to cushion them against teenage cruelties.

But Mucci, the clinical director of the Newport Beach clinic, has doubts about the prevailing psychological wisdom of letting “kids know they are valuable no matter what.” It is possible, she said, for teenagers to have too much self-esteem. “We tell adolescents in this culture how precious their identity is. It makes sense that if they feel like their identity has been trod upon in any way, that they would become violent.”

Other experts say teenagers might need outside sources of acceptance, to make up for the shunning so common at schools.

“At this age, the way kids feel about themselves is beginning to be influenced so much by what other kids say,” said Kay Ostensen, a counselor at Thurston Middle School in Laguna Beach. “You need a lot of protective cushioning from home and from outside involvement that teaches values--Scouting, church or synagogue, Junior League. All these things help kids break through the surface of ‘What clothes can I afford? What can I drive?’ to the deeper value of true friendship.”

Students Separated by Cliques at School

Student cliques at Newport Harbor High School in Newport Beach are delineated by the different parts of the school quadrangle where they eat lunch: a table of thrift-store-dressing kids hunkered at one table, dyed-hair punkers at another. Skaters clumped over there, preps and athletes elsewhere. While tensions between cliques aren’t prevalent now, they flared last year when a group of kids favoring hard-core music started fighting physically among themselves and with other groups, students said.

“It’s not race or sports or religion [that divides students], it has to do with money,” said student Kelli Carson, 16, a self-identified member of the school’s “weird group,” which she said is considered weird mainly for allowing in many different kinds of people.

The students said they felt safe at school--generally. “I don’t think there’s anyone at our school that would be crazy enough to” commit major violence, said 15-year-old Amanda Knost. “I totally think there is,” said her friend Talia Guido, also 15. “There are just so many different cliques. People get jealous.”

And one North Hollywood student who 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.”

Some say that identifying dangerous outcasts shouldn’t be as difficult as it has been.

“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 school counselors who might be able to spot those signs are in short supply.

The state ranks last in the nation in its guidance counselor-to-student ratio, 1 to 1,082, compared with the national average of one counselor for every 512 students.

A spate of brochures, seminars and even a program to air on MTV this afternoon should help spell out the markers of adolescent violence.

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: loss of temper on a daily basis, increased use of drugs or alcohol, announced threats, carrying a weapon or pleasure in hurting animals.

Other things to watch for: a youngster who has access to or fascination with weapons, has been a victim of bullying, feels constantly disrespected or withdraws from friends and activities.

Those warning signs also are at the heart of the program to premier 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, also this afternoon.

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 to 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 those who are already on the fringes.

The shootings are likely to give impetus to a bill by Assemblyman Jack Scott (D-Altadena) that would provide additional resources for creating crisis response teams for school districts.

State Supt. of Public Instruction 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.

Times staff writers Jeff Gettleman, Jill Leovy, Ray Herndon, Nancy Trejos, Michael Luo, Anna Gorman, Kate Folmar, Lisa Richardson, Louis Sahagun, Hillary MacGregor and Julie Marquis contributed to this story. Correspondent Crystal Carreon also contributed.